OK, I was wrong about the edge case described below. Atlanta still matters to us, but can't actually make the playoffs themselves. In the case I described, Atlanta wins out, Boston loses out in regulation, and we gain exactly 3 points to tie the two of them. I stated that in this case, Atlanta makes the playoffs. Actually, they definitely don't. In that case, for real: if we gained our 3 points by winning one and losing one in OT, we win the tiebreaker and get the spot. However, if we did it by losing three in OT, Atlanta will throw off the head-to-head tiebreaker we would normally have over the Bruins (and which the Bruins would have over the Thrashers and the Thrashers would have over us) and push us and Boston into a fight over goal differential. Which, right now, they lead us in by 1, +1-0.
Fascinating, almost certainly meaningless stuff, huh?
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