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The Eastern Conference is jam-packed from spots six-to-nine. So many different scenarios can take place depending on who loses to whom. But it’s also pretty easy.

How they get in:

Bruins: Two-points. A win tomorrow afternoon against the Hurricanes seals-the-deal.

Canadiens: Same. The Habs just need to beat the 29th ranked Maple Leafs tonight.

Flyers: Ditto. But they’ll need to do it in regulation over the New York Rangers tonight at Madison Square Garden.

Rangers: Two regulation-time victories over the Philadelphia Flyers.

There are a bunch of different scenarios that you can mix-and-match from now ’til the end of both games tonight. Here are just a few to rattle your brain:

1. It’s amazing how this ended-up; the eighth-place Philadelphia Flyers finish the season with a home-and-home series against the ninth-place New York Rangers, tonight, at Madison Square Garden. A regulation win for the Flyers would clinch themselves a playoff berth with 88 points– all while guaranteeing both the Bruins and Canadiens a spot into the post-season, and allowing the Rangers to make their tee-times as early as this coming Monday…
2. If the Rangers win both games against the Flyers in regulation, the Habs beat the Leafs, and the Bruins get just one-point in their next two games, Philadelphia is history…
3. But if the Habs lose their last game of the season tonight, they could be eliminated themselves….only if the Rangers win both games against the Flyers — one must be an overtime/shootout victory — then both N.Y. and Philly would wind-up in the playoffs with 88 points each.

So it’s all up to the Rangers tonight. With a regulation-time loss tonight, we can quit mixing-and-matching these scenarios and look forward to Montreal, Philly, and Boston duke it out for spots 6-8.