Games Remaining: 13
Current Points: 92
Current Position: 1st in Central [4 points ahead of Colorado, who has 2 games in hand]
Home Games Remaining: 7 [current record at home: 23-6-5]
Road Games Remaining: 6 [current record on road: 18-12-5]
As of March 8, the Blues have practically clinched a playoff spot.
Magic Number to officially clinch a playoff spot: 11
Magic Number to clinch top-3 in the Central: 12
Next 5 Games:
3/9 - vs. Florida
3/11 - at Anaheim (already 1-1!)
3/13 - vs. San Jose
3/15 - vs. Ottawa
3/17 - at Philadelphia
THE BLUES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS! Unofficially, of course, but whoever finishes 9th is incredibly likely to be under 92 points. IMO, we can safely start talking playoffs. And just think, it wasn't that long ago that 1st-9th were separated by a mere 6 points.
For official playoff-clinching purposes, the team we're marking to right now is Minnesota who's at 75 points with 14 to go. They can get to 103; assuming we stay ahead of the Wild on regulation wins (we currently lead 32-30), our magic number to clinch is 11 points. If for some reason we can't stay up on RWs, it's 12. We'll use the former as long as we're up.
For top-3 in the division, we're watching Nashville. The Predators are at 76 points with 14 to go; that means they can get to 104, and with us ahead on regulation wins 31-27 - we'll assume we stay ahead there - the magic number for top-3 in the division is 12 points. Since it's practically the same as playoff-clinching (and at some point could be the same), I'll track this too.
I'm not going to keep track of "to clinch the division" just yet, so here's your update and we'll pick it back up when we lock down a top-3 spot: tonight's win moves that to 27 (Colorado has 88 points, can get to 118 but they clearly hold the first tiebreak on us so we have to win outright, meaning we need 119 - or, 27 more).