The Montreal Canadiens have yet to clinch a playoff berth, but there are three ways they could do it as early as Easter Sunday.
If you looked at the standings on Sunday morning, you might have wondered if someone got confused when typing them up. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres both have clinched their playoff berth with 102 and 100 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens, which are second in the Atlantic Division with 100 points ahead of the Sabres, haven’t.
Simply put, the Habs are ahead of the Sabres because they have a game in hand; if they didn’t, Montreal would be third based on regulation wins. Buffalo has 38 regulation wins while Montreal only has 32. That’s also the reason why Montreal hasn’t clinched yet. The Ottawa Senators, currently in the second wild card spot, have 88 points with six games left to play, meaning they can still reach 100 points. If they did and the Habs didn’t get another point until the end of the season, they would qualify because they have 33 regulation wins to Montreal’s 32.
Now, that won’t happen; it would take an unmitigated disaster for Montreal to go without another point by the end of the season. However, their low number of regulation wins may cost them home-ice advantage. Even if they win their six remaining games in regulation, they won’t have more regulation wins than the Sabres. If both teams ended up with 38 regulation wins, the next tie breaker would be the most wins, excluding shootout wins, reflected by the “ROW” column in the standings. As things stand, Montreal has the edge on Buffalo with 42 ROW to 41, but there’s still time for that to change.
In any case, there are three ways that the Canadiens can clinch a playoff birth on Easter Sunday: if the Detroit Red Wings lose to the Minnesota Wild in their 1:00 PM tilt, or if the Senators lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in their 5:00 PM duel, or if the Canadiens get at least one point against the New Jersey Devils.
With six games to play, the Canadiens have all but qualified, and it’s just a matter of mathematically qualifying. In other words, Montreal doesn’t have much to worry about, but they won’t be able to take it easy since they could still end up winning the division or even the conference. While getting home-ice advantage remains the goal, it’s interesting to note that Montreal has gotten 54 of its 100 points on the road and 46 at home. Still, having the last change and playing a game seven at home in the playoffs would be better than not having those advantages.
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