Having clinched a playoff spot, the New York Islanders are making a few lineup changes, but this clinch-hangover game is far from meaningless: Depending on how this and other games go tonight, the sixth-place Islanders could end the evening in anywhere from fifth to eighth place.
Ottawa and New York are each two points behind the Isles, and regulation wins would give them tie-breaker advantages if the Islanders fail to fetch a point in Philadelphia. On the other hand, an Isles win and a Toronto regulation loss puts the Isles in fifth.
The lineup changes? Well Kevin Poulin gets a start to give Evgeni Nabokov a rare chance at a spa and rest.
But the jarring move is removing Thomas Hickey in favor of Matt Carkner, which breaks up the fantastic partnership Hickey has developed with Lubomir Visnovsky over the second half of this season. Given the opponent and the possibility for garbage-time tomfoolery, the Isles arguably have incentive to put some policemen in the lineup.
But more than that, we'll get a look at how different defensemen work together as we head into the playoffs. Ever since Brian Strait's ankle injury, Carkner's rotating appearances (alternating with Radek Martinek) have come next to Mark Streit. With Strait back, the alphabetically tricky Strait-Streit partnership was reformed. So either way Vis gets a new partner tonight.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Ottawa Senators vs Washington Capitals April 25, 2013
The Ottawa Senators will get a major boost in their final push for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the return of Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson.
Karlsson told reporters after Ottawa's morning skate at Verizon Center he will play Thursday night against the Washington Capitals. Karlsson was expected to miss 4-6 months after surgery Feb. 14 to repair a 70-percent laceration to the Achilles tendon in his left foot.
If he does play Thursday against Washington (7 p.m. ET), it will be 10 weeks to the day of the injury.
Karlsson skated a regular shift alongside defense partner Marc Methot at practice Wednesday.
"I have no concerns," Senators coach Paul MacLean said Wednesday when asked if Karlsson was coming back too soon. "If he says he's ready to play, then he's ready to play. He's done the work.
Tampa Bay Lightning vs Boston Bruins April 25, 2013
As is pretty much standard operating procedure after the Boston Bruins take a big loss, they took yesterday off altogether (now, whether that’s the best course of action or not is debatable) and are back in action today for tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lighting. This is the game, by the way, that was rescheduled from the beginning of February, when a huge blizzard necessitated a redo because the city was pretty much paralyzed. It’s also one of three upcoming games for Boston as they close out the regular season, including another reschedule.
Tampa Bay may be out of the playoffs once again this year, but they’re still shaking things up and making headlines. Steven Stamkos is not far at all from the lead in the Rocket Richard goal-scoring race. Last night, Marty St. Louis just took over the lead in NHL scoring and is now at 58 points, proving that short folks can do big things.
The Bruins may be in some strange headspace right now, thinking about all the things that went wrong in their most recent 5-2 loss while also trying to move past it and focus on tonight’s game. But really, the way they performed in that game was just so bad in so many ways that they kind of deserve to be in a tough place mentally.
Of the Bruins at today’s notably longer morning skate, Nathan Horton did skate, but remains day-to-day and won’t play tonight. It’s also hard to predict what might be done for defensive pairings since now there are just so many defensemen and that ongoing mission to let some of them rest before the playoffs. A popular sentiment in the midst of that terrible game was to let Zdeno Chara take a night off because, to use a sports cliche, his head was not in the game. Plus, it’s so close to playoffs and this game means little beyond the potential acquisition of two points–it won’t, say, decide whether or not Boston gets into the dance at all–but the project d-pairs have Chara right in the lineup, so who even knows.
The huge show of support from all over the league for Boston’s relief efforts continues. The blue and yellow awareness ribbon stickers will adorn the helmets of Lightning players tonight. Then, in an interesting turn from how jerseys are usually the ones auctioned off, the helmets themselves will go up on the block with all proceeds off to One Fund. That’s a neat twist.
Nashville Predators vs Detroit Red Wings April 25, 2013
After their latest victory moved them back into playoff position, the Red Wings look for a third straight win Thursday night when they face the visiting Nashville Predators, whom they've shut out in the last two meetings.
Detroit (22-16-8) has earned at least one point in six of seven games and with a second straight victory Wednesday, 3-1 over Los Angeles, moved one point ahead of Columbus into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Red Wings are one point behind seventh-place Minnesota.
"We're trying to crawl our way back into the playoffs," Detroit's Jimmy Howard said after he made 23 saves Wednesday.
With two games remaining, the Red Wings have only themselves to blame if they don't reach the playoffs for a 22nd straight season -- and last before heading to the Eastern Conference.
"We still have it in our own hands," said captain Henrik Zetterberg, who has five assists in two games. "We've been playing pretty good and if we play like that, we'll be fine.
"There's been ups and downs, but mostly we've been able to keep working hard."
Johan Franzen wasn't able to finish Wednesday's game because of an undisclosed injury, but coach Mike Babcock hoped he would be healthy enough to play Thursday.
After its home finale, Detroit travels to Dallas on Saturday for what it hopes will not be the final game of the year. The Blue Jackets, who visit the Stars on Thursday, host Nashville (16-21-9) on Saturday.
"They've all felt like a playoff game here for a while," Howard said. "So, it's just two more here, and hopefully get the job done."
Howard has been a big reason behind Detroit's last two victories, stopping 57 of 58 shots. He's made 55 saves while the Red Wings have outscored the Predators 7-0 in the last two meetings.
Detroit last recorded three straight shutouts of the same opponent against Colorado from Jan. 8-Feb. 8, 2008. Nashville, meanwhile, has never been blanked by the same foe in three consecutive contests.
Pavel Datsyuk, who had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings on Wednesday, has one score with five assists in three games versus Nashville this season.
Looking to avoid their first nine-game road slide since one of the same duration spanned the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons, the Predators have dropped 14 of 15 (1-10-4) away from home.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Florida Panthers April 25, 2013
The Toronto Maple Leafs are trying to regain their momentum and potentially improve their seeding before heading into the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.
They'll try to sweep a season series from the Florida Panthers for the first time in seven years Thursday night.
Toronto (25-16-5) has already clinched a postseason berth, and is trying to gain ground in the race for home-ice advantage in a first-round playoff series.
The Maple Leafs are fifth in the Eastern Conference, four points behind fourth-place Montreal with two games left. They're also one point ahead of the sixth-place New York Islanders with Ottawa and the New York Rangers lurking three points back.
Toronto may have a chance to gain ground on the Canadiens, who visit a Winnipeg team on Thursday playing its season finale in the hopes of keeping its playoff hopes alive.
The Leafs and Canadiens conclude the regular season in Toronto on Saturday.
Before that, the Maple Leafs will try to shake out of a 1-3-0 funk after going 7-1-1 over the previous nine games.
Their recent struggles continued with Wednesday's 5-2 defeat at Tampa Bay.
"Our execution with the puck has to get better," coach Randy Carlyle said. "We can't make these same mistakes in the postseason."
Joffrey Lupul has a goal in each of the past three games, giving him 11 with six assists over his past 11 contests. That includes a pair of third-period goals in a 3-2 win over Florida (14-26-6) on March 26.
Phil Kessel, who has seven goals and eight assists in nine games, assisted on both of Lupul's tallies in that meeting after scoring one of his own in a 3-0 win at Florida on Feb. 8.
The Maple Leafs last swept a season series from the Panthers in 2005-06, winning all four meetings.
The Panthers are trying to conclude their home schedule with back-to-back wins for just the second time this season.
They played the role of spoiler Tuesday, beating the New York Rangers 3-2 to keep them from clinching a playoff spot.
Coach Kevin Dineen, though, doesn't care what opponents are playing for while Florida misses the postseason for the 11th time in 12 seasons.
"Our goal is to concentrate on our game," he said.
Tomas Fleischmann had a goal and an assist against the Rangers, giving him seven points over the past seven home games.
The left wing scored in the most recent meeting with Toronto, while Jonathan Huberdeau managed an assist.
With two games left in the regular season, Huberdeau is making a final push to become the first member of the Panthers to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year.
He's the rookie scoring leader with 14 goals while his 28 points are tied for first with Ottawa's Cory Conacher. Huberdeau, though, has one goal and is a minus-7 over his last 11 games.
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