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Originally Posted by Jacks
What does magic number mean?
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Magic Number represents the combination of Team Wins and Opponents Losses to make the playoffs.
For example, with the Flames, they currently have 28 games remaining in the regular season. Right now they have a total of 63 points on the campaign. If they win all 28 remaining games, they will earn 56 points from these victories, and their point total at the end of the year would be 119 points.
By comparison, the first team outside of the playoffs right now is the Wild. They have 29 games left to go, and currently have 59 points on the season so far. If they were to win all their remaining games, they would earn an additional 58 points, for a total of 117 points on the campaign.
Assuming that the standings stay the same for right now, for the Flames to make the playoffs, the Flames need to win and the Wild need to lose any combination of games that add up to 27.
To explain this theory, if the Flames win 20 of their remaining 28 games, they will end up with 103 points (63 currently + 40 points for 20 wins = 103 points). With the Flames magic number being at 28, that means that if the Flames win 20 games to finish out the season, the Wild only need to lose 8 games (in regulation) for the Flames to make the playoffs. If the Wild lose 8 games, that means that they will win 21 games (they have 29 games left remaining). With 59 points currently, they would gain an additional 42 points through the 21 victories, giving them a total of 101 points on the season.
In this example, assuming no other team passes the Wild for the first place non-playoff team, and the Flames don't pass any other team currently in the playoffs, the Flames would make the playoffs with 103 points and the Wild would miss it with 101.