Wild isn’t skating this morning, but I figured I’d come on and say hello.

I’ve gotten a few emails, so I think there’s confusion about how the Wild can clinch a playoff spot tonight.

The Wild can clinch a playoff spot tonight if it gets one point vs. Colorado OR Nashville OR Vancouver lose in regulation or overtime/shootout.

Here’s why:

– The Wild has 93 points. If the Wild gets a point, it would have 94.

Nashville and Vancouver have 86 points with four games left, meaning the most each could get is 94 points if they both went 4-0.

However, if Vancouver won out, it would have 42 wins. If the Wild didn’t get another win, it would have 42. The next tiebreaker is head-to-head, and the Wild went 5-2-1 against Vancouver. Hence, any point by the Wild clinches a playoff berth.

–If the Wild doesn’t get a point, any lost point by Nashville or Vancouver clinches a berth. Here’s why.

If the Wild ended the day with 93 points (getting zero tonight) and Nashville or Vancouver ended with 87 (getting one), they’d have three games left, meaning a maximum of 93 if they won out.

But to win out, Nashville would get 42 wins. The Wild already has 42 wins even if it doesn’t get another point. The next tiebreaker is head-to-head, and the Wild went 3-1 against Nashville.

If Vancouver won out, it would have 41 wins, and the Wild already has more wins than that.

So that’s why the Wild can clinch a playoff spot if it gets one point OR Nashville OR Vancouver lose in regulation or overtime/shootout.

One other thing:

– With Kurtis Foster back in the Twin Cities, the defenseman was visited by a couple teammates after practice yesterday. He was also ecstatic to learn in newspaper that the Wild plans to re-sign him.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 9:44 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.