The Minnesota Wild have just three games left this season to capture their first division title in 15 years. Entering play Monday, Minnesota is four points behind Colorado for first in the Central and two behind second place Dallas
Division title aside, the Wild have clinched a playoff spot. It’s just a matter of who they’ll face in the first round. At this point, there are only four teams the Wild could end up meeting in the playoffs: Dallas, Colorado, Seattle or Los Angeles. Let’s dig into
Who plays who, a refresher course:
The division winners get the one and two seeds in the Western Conference with the team finishing with more points winning the West and the No. 1 seed.
Division winners play one of the two wild card teams. The teams that finish second and third in each division play each other.
- No. 1 overall vs. Wild Card #2
- No. 2 overall vs. Wild Card #1
- No. 2 Central vs. No. 3 Central
- No. 2 Pacific vs No. 3 Pacific
What the playoffs currently look like
If the playoffs were to start Monday, here’s how the West would look:
- Vegas Golden Knights vs. Winnipeg Jets
- Colorado Avalanche vs. Seattle Kraken
- Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings
- Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild
Possible playoff opponents for the Wild
The matchups aren’t set in stone with three games remaining and first through third still up for grabs in the Central, so where can the Wild finish and who can they possibly play?
The only way they play the Kraken or Kings is if Minnesota wins the Central.
One thing we know is they can’t win the Western Conference. Las Vegas currently sits atop the West on 107 points. The max points the Wild can finish with is 106. Those back-to-back losses to Vegas last week were killer in the Wild’s chances of overtaking Vegas.
Minnesota can still claim the Central, though it’s a bit of a long shot. Entering play Monday, Colorado leads the division with 104 points. Dallas is second with 102 and Minnesota has 100. All three teams have three games remaining, so to win the Central Minnesota pretty much needs to win out and hope Colorado and Dallas collapse.
- Wild: at Chicago (Monday), vs. Winnipeg (Tuesday), at Nashville (Thursday)
- Avs: vs. Edmonton (Tuesday), vs. Winnipeg (Thursday), at Nashville (Friday)
- Stars: at Detroit (Monday), at St. Louis (Wednesday), vs. St. Louis (Thursday)
If Minnesota wins the division, they will play Seattle or Los Angeles in the first round.
If Minnesota finishes second in the division, they will (probably) host Dallas. There’s an outside shot that the Wild would host Colorado but that would again likely require Colorado losing out or Minnesota finding a funky way to win a tiebreaker over the Avs.
If Minnesota finishes third in the division, they will face Dallas or Colorado, whichever team finishes second.
