It was a typical night in the NHL. Minnesota and Carolina won and are in the playoffs passing Colorado and Columbus who were idle. When the night started the Rangers were ten spots from the bottom on the league. Losing to Minnesota, they find themselves only eighth from the bottom. If they are successful in trading their available assets, a bottom five finish is entirely possible.
The Hurricanes beat the Panthers 4-3 and moved into the last wild card spot. Florida remains tied with the Rangers with 60 points, but have played one fewer game. With Edmonton beating the Islanders in OT 4-3 and the Coyotes topping the Canucks 3-2 in OT as well, it made the lottery standings that much tighter.