2024-04-17 00:34:46
The finish of the NHL regular season brings an engaging plot. Four teams are fighting for the last ticket to the playoffs.
The battle for the remaining wild card in the Eastern Conference involves Washington, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Everyone needs to play a single game.
The tug-of-war could have been made much easier on Tuesday night when all of the aforementioned teams were in action except for Philadelphia, but no one wavered in the end.
The fight for the second wild card in the East
| The team | Matches | Body | RW* | The last match |
| Washington Capitals | 81 | 89 | 31 | in Philadelphia |
| Detroit Red Wings | 81 | 89 | 27 | in Montreal |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 81 | 88 | 32 | u Islanders |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 81 | 87 | 30 | against Washington |
* Regular time wins that determine the standings in the event of a tie. Other factors are successive wins in regular time and extra time (without raids), overall wins, points from head-to-head matches, total difference in scores and finally goals scored. You can find a detailed description in English here.
The closest to failure was Detroit, which lost to Montreal 2:4 after two periods. But he found a savior in the form of Lucas Raymond. He equalized about a minute before the third siren and decided in overtime, thus keeping the team in the game for promotion.
He couldn’t even describe the euphoric moments. “I had a bit of a blackout to be honest,” he recounted.
Emotions also ran high in Washington, where the home team beat strong Boston 2-0. The clean sheet was picked up by veteran Charlie Lindgren, who climbed to the number one position during the season as a substitute.
“I’ve dreamed about this for 20 years. About catching in the NHL and playing games like this, fighting for the playoffs,” said the 30-year-old goalkeeper with not much experience in the best league in the world.
Washington, as the only one of the warring four, has everything in his hands. All he needs to do is win on the ice of Philadelphia on Wednesday night. But he will start for the second time in two days.
On the contrary, Philadelphia, which has complicated the situation with a recent streak of eight consecutive defeats, has to rely on others more than anyone else.
She needs both Detroit and Pittsburgh to lose in regulation and herself to win after 60 minutes. Then, like Washington, she would have 89 points. It would also tie him in regular-time wins or points from relevant head-to-head games (the last away game and the last home game would be counted from the total of three).
So the difference in the score would decide, where Washington is at a shameful -38, while Philadelphia is “only” at -25.
The online newspaper The Athletic has the most faith in Detroit, whose chances of advancing are calculated at 46 percent. Washington followed with 42 percent, Pittsburgh with ten and Philadelphia with just three.
Pittsburgh, which missed the playoffs by a single point last year, was expected to play on the edge again.
But the rest is a pleasant surprise. The Athletic pegged Detroit’s playoff chances at just ten percent before the season. In Washington it was six, in Philadelphia one percent.
No matter how the battle for the last wild card turns out, the winner will subsequently face a difficult obstacle, namely the New York Rangers. That is, the winners of the President’s Trophy for the best team of the regular season.
But it doesn’t have to mean a quick end.
She earned the second wild card in East Florida a year ago. And she knocked out record-breaking Boston, against whom she should not have had a chance, in a seven-game battle.
Match schedule
WEDNESDAY
1:00 Montreal – Detroit
1:00 Philadelphia – Washington
THURSDAY
1:00 Islanders – Pittsburgh
Note: Match dates are in Central European Time.