Earlier on Saturday, the Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators both lost their games, making the Montreal Canadiens’ route to clinching a playoff spot a little easier. With a win tonight against the New Jersey Devils in regulation, the Canadiens will need just another point or loss from their opponents to officially punch their ticket to the 2026 NHL playoffs. Of course, there are still a few other things that must happen in the process.

TB and BUF clinch, but due to low regulation wins, a Habs win tonight won’t clinch.

DET could win their next six games in regulation, and Montreal could lose their final games after tonight.

Both would have 100 pts, but Detroit could win the RW tiebreaker.

Magic number is 3.

— Marco D’Amico (@mndamico) April 4, 2026

If the Habs beat the Devils tonight, they will have 100 points and have a 12-point lead on both the Senators and Red Wings, with each team having 6 games to go. Therefore, if either team wins out and the Canadiens lose their final 6 matchups, at the very least they can only finish tied by the end of the season. Although the reality of that happening is very low that the Habs will go winless after tonight’s game or that either of their divisional rivals will win out going forward.

This is especially the case with the Senators that have a lot of distractions surrounding them involving starting netminder Linus Ullmark and captain Brady Tkachuk. Meanwhile, the Red Wings have lost 5 of their last 7 games and have seen their playoff chances slipping away before their eyes as the season goes down the wire. They are now in danger of having the longest current post-season drought after the Buffalo Sabres officially clinched today with their loss.

A look at the Eastern Conference standings ahead of tonight’s game between the Canadiens and Devils in New Jersey (7 p.m., City, SNE, TVA Sports). Tampa Bay plays host to Boston at 5 p.m. and Buffalo visits Washington at 7 p.m. #Habs pic.twitter.com/wvx4qP0ndE

— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) April 4, 2026

The tie-breaker would come down to regulation wins, which would actually give the Senators the biggest advantage as they would hold the tie-breaker on the Habs. However, that is why they also hold the 2nd Wild Card spot over the Red Wings right now. So, if it comes down to it and it’s just the Senators who end up catching up in the end, the Habs should still make the playoffs. In order for the Red Wings to pass the Habs, they will need to win out and make sure that 5 of their 6 victories are in regulation.

The Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets are also tied with the Senators and Red Wings with 88 points with 6 games left to go, but given the tie-breaker rules, neither Metropolitan Division team would be able to surpass the Habs as long as the Canadiens get two points tonight.

Winning just one of their two games against the Devils this weekend is all that the Habs realistically need to officially punch their ticket to the 2026 postseason, which will take a lot of the pressure off their shoulders for the rest of the season as they can then focus on resting some guys who are banged up ahead of the playoffs.

We clinch Sunday if:
Habs beat the Devils once and get at least 1 pt in the other.
AND
Sens, Wings, Jackets all lose in regulation on Saturday.
OR
Habs beat Devils twice
AND
Sens, Wings, Jackets lose in any fashion on Saturday

— JEC REX (@JECREX5117) April 3, 2026

This could allow someone like David Reinbacher to get a call-up to show what he could do at the NHL level for the last 4 or 5 games of the regular season. However, at the same time, the Habs have now placed themselves in a tight battle for the Atlantic Division crown, so that could be the next team goal once they officially clinch their spot in the playoffs.

Essentially, we could already see that the X next to the Habs in the standings is coming but thanks to being red-hot on their current road trip, it is a lot closer than many expected it would have been just two weeks ago. It will now be about where they finish down the stretch.

Where do you see the Habs finishing in the Atlantic Division at season’s end?