After the sweep of Minnesota and virtually a week off attention turns to the Out of Town Scoreboard. Here is the latest magic number watch for the Devils for clinching over the remaining teams sitting on the outside looking in. Note the Devils have already clinched the RW tiebreaker over all the teams except the Rangers. That means the Devils clinch with a tie vs those teams vs needing an additional point vs the Rangers. That is reflected in the magic numbers below.
Magic Number Watch (# of points need to gain/lose to clinch):
Columbus -- 8 points
NY Rangers -- 7 points
Detroit* -- 5 points
NY Islanders -- 5 points
Pittsburgh -- Clinched (Max points is 85)
*- Detroit would need another metro team to also pass the Devils in order to jump over the Devils. The Red Wings are also the position where we would be eliminated from being able to obtain the 1st overall pick.
The earliest possible clinch date is Monday, April 7.
Tonight's Games of Interest:
Predators @ Blue Jackets
Lightning @ Islanders
Red Wings @ Blues
Wild @ NY Rangers (tomorrow night)