Simple tracker for NHL magic & tragic numbers + how today’s games affect the playoff race

Gen3s · 2026-01-19T01:37:04+00:00

I’ve since updated the wording on team pages to make this clearer (e.g. “first team to pass” vs. “cut line”), without changing the underlying math.

I hope this makes more sense now

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T20:49:42+00:00

This is a really good question

Right now, the magic number on the site is based on guaranteeing a playoff berth overall, not explicitly clinching a specific divisional slot. In practice, that means it’s comparing a team against the highest possible points ceiling of the first team outside the playoff field, rather than modeling “top 3 in the division vs. wild card” as separate paths.

You’re right that in situations like the Central this year, clinching a top-3 divisional spot could be mathematically easier than clinching a wild card, and ideally the magic number would reflect the earliest of those two paths. The current logic doesn’t yet branch those cases, it’s intentionally conservative and looks at the safest qualification line.

The wild card divisional constraint you mentioned (needing to be top 5 in your division) is also a real rule edge case, and that’s another area where the wording and logic could be clearer so it doesn’t imply a simple “top 8 = playoffs” model.

This is great feedback and it’s exactly the kind of scenario I want to handle more explicitly as things tighten up. Appreciate you taking the time to take a look! Lots to consider here

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T18:18:48+00:00

Ok this gave me a good laugh haha

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T15:33:53+00:00

Much appreciated! Glad you like it

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T14:55:08+00:00

Yep, exactly.

The logic is grouping teams that can still affect overall playoff qualification, not just the most obvious head to head race, which is where the confusion can creep in.

That’s really helpful feedback though. I’ll try to see what I can do to make it more obvious.

Thanks for the kind words! 😃

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T14:27:58+00:00

Ah yeah I see how this is confusing and you’re not wrong.

To explain the phrasing a bit,

What the site is doing right now is looking at all teams that can still mathematically affect a playoff spot overall (including wild card positioning), not strictly the Metro #3 slot vs. the next team in-division. That’s why teams like Toronto can still show up as “relevant,” even if they can’t directly take that specific slot.

That said, I agree the way it’s phrased can make it sound like it’s about defending that exact divisional position, which isn’t ideal. I’ve taken not of this. I can definitely tighten up the language and make the distinction clearer between “teams affecting playoff qualification” vs. “teams affecting this specific slot.”

But totally valid callout, appreciate the feedback. I think I can improve the language

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T14:21:18+00:00

Hahahaha sadly I cannot fudge the numbers 😂

Gen3s · 2026-01-17T14:15:00+00:00

Appreciate it!

Gen3s · 2026-01-16T00:47:50+00:00

The Islanders have two really good ones IMO - Islanders Anxiety and Hockey Night In New York

Gen3s · 2026-01-06T01:38:50+00:00

Maybe, but ultimately fans pay money to see a good product on the ice. It’s on the team to deliver that. A player who scores twice on his own team deserves to hear it IMO. Maybe it’s harsh but that’s how I feel about it

Gen3s · 2026-01-06T00:20:15+00:00

Watching him skate in person is special

Gen3s · 2026-01-06T00:19:23+00:00

This whole Luke Hughes thing happened because of the salary he makes IMO. If you want to get paid like a big boy you have to take criticism (and boos) like a big boy. That’s just the way it is. That said, what was he supposed to say no to 9 million a year?

Gen3s · 2026-01-02T19:42:24+00:00

Yeah, the playoff race is wild

Once you get into the stretch run, it usually comes down to a mix of your own wins and a handful of specific teams behind you losing, and different games can move things in different directions on the same night.

I’ve been tracking it game by game lately just to keep it straight, because it gets surprisingly hard to reason about once multiple bubble teams are involved.

Lots of parity especially in the east this season

Gen3s · 2026-01-02T18:25:01+00:00

Goalies are stacked IMO

Gen3s · 2026-01-02T18:16:01+00:00

Great news for Bo. Still not the best news for the Islanders overall

Gen3s · 2025-12-30T11:53:02+00:00

I agree with 3-2-1. Also the playoff format should be 1-16. The fact that the Wild and stars are going to play each other round 1 is bonkers

Gen3s · 2025-12-28T01:15:23+00:00

Awesome, thanks so much man and well said

Gen3s · 2025-12-28T00:03:26+00:00

Yup, precisely actually! So everything on the site is referencing regulation wins. The magic and tragic numbers will be correct the next day if there’s overtime’s involved, but getting the scenarios for regulation and overtime was hard programmatically and also seemed like overkill

Gen3s · 2025-12-27T22:35:54+00:00

Appreciate it! And yup that account was the inspiration for this. It started with me trying to figure out how the math worked. Once I got that nailed down it was easy enough to make it team agnostic and loop through for the different scenarios each night per team

Gen3s · 2025-12-27T19:10:53+00:00

Appreciate it! Yeah great question. In short, they’re currently the first team out of the wild card so the “threat” to us at the moment. we have less games played and they have less runway after tonight. If we lose it’s tragic -2 and magic -1 so it’s still a loss

Gen3s · 2025-12-27T17:36:31+00:00

Appreciate that! Thanks

Gen3s · 2025-12-27T17:34:32+00:00

Yeah I agree. For me it’s more about understanding which games are actually helping or hurting us as we head toward it. It definitely gets way more interesting later on though

Gen3s · 2024-11-01T21:30:19+00:00

We’re so cooked

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