NHL Playoff Death Watch: East races intensify; Flames knocked outside bubble

Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation.

Strap in … we’ve got a lot to unpack after Thursday night.

Here’s what happened during a full slate of awesome games involving playoff teams:

* The Los Angeles Kings are now the No. 3 seed in the Pacific, defeating the Islanders and leap-frogging the idle Flames. They’re also now just two points in back of Vancouver for second in the division after the Canucks lost at home.

* The Flames are now in ninth place, trailing the Kings by a point and the Jets by three points for the last wild card. Oh, yeah: They finish the season with the Kings and Jets.

* The New York Rangers became the first team to clinch a playoff spot with their win over the Ottawa Senators, moving to 101 points and the conference lead.

* The Senators saw the Hamburglar get flamed broiled in that loss, and are now tied in points with the Boston Bruins (85) after their overtime loss to the Ducks. The Bruins have 33 ROW to Ottawa’s 32, but the Sens have a game in-hand.

* Oh hai Florida: The Panthers’ regulation win moved them to 82 points with eight games left … two of them against Boston and one of them against Ottawa.

* Finally, the left-for-dead Nashville Predators are now in first place in the Central again, meaning we could still be headed for Blues/Blackhawks in the first round … unless the Wild catch Chicago, trailing them by three points and leading in ROW (38-35). The Hawks have a game in-hand, and they face each other one more time.

Here are the current standings. The Death Watch tracks the final Wild Card spot and the teams that are chasing it. Their “tragic number” is the number of points gained by the final wild card team or lost by the team chasing it.

All playoff percentages are from Sports Club Stats; tragic numbers and other figures via the NHL. A team is eliminated from play-offs when their "Tragic Number" hits 0.

Here’s the Eastern Conference picture:

The Penguins’ loss to the Hurricanes and the Capitals’ win over the Devils moved Washington to within a point of third place in the Metro with eight games left. Pick your poison: The Islanders in Round 1 or the Habs or Rangers?

All the bubble teams in the East are off on Friday. Columbus tries to prolong the inevitable at Chicago.

Meanwhile, in the West …

Obviously the game of the night on Friday is the Flames visiting the Wild, suddenly on the outside looking in. But true to form for this wacky race, the Flames can be back in third place in the Pacific with at least a point (although the Kings will have a game in-hand).

They’d also close to within a point of the Jets and two points of the Wild.

The Dallas Stars try to keep their hopes alive at Edmonton, slim as they are.