For all their struggles, the Bruins still have a comfortable lead on the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, four points ahead of Ottawa for the Northeast Division with four games in hand and seven points clear of No. 3 seed Florida.
Boston's opponent on Sunday, the Minnesota Wild, are not so fortunate to have survived a bad spell. The Wild are 2-6-2 in their last 10 games and have tumbled all the way down to 12th in the Western Conference, despite at one point leading all of hockey in the standings.
While the Wild are a cautionary tale for sure, there's no shortage of other teams out there as candidates to repeat the Wild's misfortunes. With a little over a month left to play in the regular season, the playoff races are tightening up and inevitably there will be some shuffling in the standings.
If the season ended today, sixteen teams would be in the postseason, same as always. But which teams that could make it in now won't be there when the season actually does end?
Which current top-eight NHL team is most likely to miss the playoffs?
