Saturday night was supposed to be the final night of the NHL’s regular season, but with postponement forcing the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators into a Sunday season finale at TD Garden, the Eastern Conference playoff picture will have to wait another day.
NHL playoffs: With one game left, East playoffs still up in air
All eyes will be on the Bruins and Senators on Sunday night, who’ll play to determine final seeding in the Eastern Conference.
The Bruins currently sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference after their shootout loss to the Washington Capitals on a Saturday and the Montreal Canadiens’ win over the Maple Leafs, but Boston’s still in complete control of their own destiny heading into their final game.
Boston sits with 62 points and a game left, while Montreal’s all done with 63 points. The Bruins will take the Northeast Division crown and the second seed in the East with any sort of win over the Senators on Sunday evening, while Montreal takes the second seed if Boston loses in any fashion. In short, the Bruins need two points.
The Senators also have something to play for on Sunday: A loss in regulation locks them in the eighth seed and a matchup with the Penguins. Two points catapults them over the Islanders and into the seventh seed, which would earn them a meeting with Montreal since Boston would end up in the fourth seed. One point also gives Ottawa the seventh seed and bumps the Isles down to eighth since the Senators hold the tiebreaker over New York.
And that’s the story of how, with one game left in the season, only one Eastern Conference playoff matchup is set in stone.
The No. 3 Washington Capitals and No. 6 New York Rangers are locked in and will kick off their playoff series this week at Verizon Center, but the others are all up in the air for now. The Maple Leafs are locked in at No. 5 and will travel to either Boston or Montreal, while the Isles and Senators will finish seventh and eighth.
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