Nail, meet coffin.
The door on the Minnesota Wild’s slim playoff hopes was slammed shut with little hope of being pried open Thursday night. Not only did the Wild lose at home to the Colorado Avalance, but the Los Angeles Kings beat the lowly San Jose Sharks.
Entering play Friday, Minnesota trails the Kings by 10 points for the final wild-card spot and they only have seven games to play. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Minnesota could win out to finish with 95 points and the Kings would just have to earn five points in its final five games to eliminate the Wild.
Add in the fact that the Kings have the easiest remaining schedule in the NHL and it would be easy to forgive Kirill Kaprizov if he wants to book a vacation to Bora Bora for the middle of April.
According to MoneyPuck, the Wild are left with a 0.4% chance to make the playoffs.
It’s just a matter of time before they’re mathematically eliminated. It could happen as soon as Saturday night if the Wild lose at home to Winnipeg and the Kings win their home game against the Canucks. That would put Minnesota 12 points back with six games to go and the Kings would own the tiebreaker.
Minnesota’s 2023-24 season is already six feet under. The next few days should begin the burial process.
