With one night left in the regular season, the Bruins still do not know their first-round opponent. That is because the combination of their 5-0 win over the Sabres and the Lightning's 5-2 loss to the Blue Jackets on Thursday means Boston can still catch and pass Tampa Bay for third place in the Atlantic Division.
With one game to go for both teams, the Bruins (107 points) are one point behind the Lightning (108). Whoever finishes third will face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round and be on the Atlantic side of the bracket. Whoever finishes fourth will face the Carolina Hurricanes and flip over to the Metropolitan Division.
The Bruins own the tiebreaker over the Lightning (regulation wins), so in order to finish third, they will need to get one more point than Tampa on Friday. That means a Boston win of any kind combined with a Tampa loss of any kind, or a Boston overtime or shootout loss combined with a Tampa regulation loss.
A Lightning win of any kind would mean they finish third. So would a Lightning overtime or shootout loss combined with a Bruins loss of any kind. Both teams losing in regulation would also mean Tampa finishes third.
The Bruins are playing in Toronto against the Maple Leafs on Friday, while the Lightning will be on Long Island facing the Islanders.
How much either team cares about where they finish or whom they'll face in the first round is unclear. The Hurricanes and Maple Leafs are both really good teams with question marks in goal. Toronto, the "reward" for finishing higher, has actually been the hotter of the two over the last couple months.
Bruce Cassidy said after Thursday's game that the Bruins' plans hadn't changed and that they were still going to rest some players Friday night. He said he would have a better idea which players would rest on Friday morning.
"No, we had some plans for maintenance," Cassidy said. "A couple guys -- I'll go to the trainer's room now -- might have a bump or bruise, might have to stay behind. No one left the game, so that's a positive. No one looks like they'll be out any length of time, but there might be a few 24-, 48-hour injuries in there that we'll have to adjust our lineup if necessary."
The Maple Leafs, who are locked into second place in the Atlantic, have already announced that they'll be resting Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Jack Campbell and possibly John Tavares and/or others on Friday.
