The good news for the Boston Bruins is that their awful Thursday doesn’t knock them out of the playoffs altogether. The bad news is ... just about everything else that happened tonight.
As you may already know, the Ottawa Senators held up their end of the bargain with a 3-0 win against the New York Rangers. That allowed Ottawa to bump Boston out of the East’s wild card ranks, but the Bruins could have made that a temporary thing. The B’s failed in that quest, however, falling to the 10th-ranked Florida Panthers 4-2.
(One can imagine that Roberto Luongo was quite happy to spite his pals from Boston, eh?)
The Panthers also did the New York Islanders a favor, as this Boston win punches their ticket to the playoffs.
The final stretch
Let’s look at what the wild card looks while ignoring the Detroit Red Wings’ tight contest against the Montreal Canadiens for now:
Wild card spot 1: Ottawa, 97 points, one game left, 36 regulation/OT wins
Wild card spot 2: Pittsburgh, 96 points, two games left, 38 ROW
Bubble: Boston, 95 points, one game left, 37 ROW
As you can probably see, the Bruins need some help after this more-or-less worst-case scenario night. The Penguins face the now-clinched Islanders on Friday and then the lowly Buffalo Sabres on Saturday while the Senators close out their season against the Philadelphia Flyers. Boston faces a Tampa Bay Lightning team that may still be gunning for the Atlantic Division crown, so they can’t expect a casual opponent.
Ultimately, if Ottawa gets a mere point against Philly, it’s over for Boston. The Penguins only need two points in whatever fashion they may get them in their last two games.
Boston could be eliminated before it plays Saturday. It happens if the Penguins win tomorrow and Ottawa gets 1 point Saturday afternoon.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) April 10, 2015
It all looks very bleak for the Bruins, who saw former teammate Jaromir Jagr score his 1,800th career point in painful fashion tonight.
#FlaPanthers play 'Shipping Up to Boston' following 4-2 win over #Bruins
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) April 10, 2015
(That’s cold.)
This commercial just came on. https://t.co/RGm4Se19kx
— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) April 10, 2015
(Seriously, ouch.)
The most positive thing is that many people were once counting out the Senators like they’re counting out the Bruins right now.