Series set as Ducks win Pacific, will face Flames

But most of the current Maple Leafs head into a make-or-break end to the regular season with little to no big-game National Hockey League experience under their belts.

The Capitals will face the Bruins or the Maple Leafs.

The Penguins played this one with a diluted lineup.

“If I’m really honest, maybe not”, Komarov said. “Might as well do it in the first round”. Toronto has 95, but have to win or lose in overtime or a shootout to the Blue Jackets because Boston wins the tiebreaker with 42 regulation/overtime wins (ROW) compared to the Leafs 39. As the second wild-card team, the Leafs would face the Presidents’ Trophy winners, the first-place overall Washington Capitals, hardly an appetizing prospect. “I’ve felt pretty good here and we’ve got a good chunk of days off here lately so that’s definitely a good thing heading down the stretch here”.

“If you want to dip your toe into the water you’re going to find out it’s boiling. Might as well just jump in”. The home team hadn’t won thus far in the season series.

“(The Blue Jackets) have a back-to-back, too.

Babcock said he told his coaching staff at the beginning of the season that if his club were to get into the postseason, it would take until Game 82, which comes Sunday against Columbus. Tormented by bad luck and at times hesitant to shoot during his scoring slump, he finally found satisfaction in front of the people, a lot of them in the media, who questioned his will to win and his conditioning during a six-season span in Toronto. Veterans like JVR, Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner have been huge for the Leafs this season and the team will need them to play at a high-level if they have any chance at knocking off the Caps. “I thought we started real good, I thought we were on it good and then as soon as something goes wrong”. We’re going to find out a lot about this Leafs team in round one when they take on arguably the most well polished team in the National Hockey League. “We’ve seen eighth seeds win and vice versa”. “You go over and over a foundation of how to play so in the big moments you do what you do, but we didn’t do that”.

“A lot of those games (in the past month) were tight”, Babcock said. “You’re wired up for everyone, but you want to play games that are high-energy and that mean something”. We have to capitalize on this intense battle and try to take a hold of the game from the very beginning. The Capitals have won nine consecutive games against the Bruins.

James van Riemsdyk tied it for the Maple Leafs only 29 seconds later – in the middle of the announcement for Kessel’s goal – with some ridiculous eye-hand coordination. Nazem Kadri is one of the most underrated centers and one of the most effective agitators in the National Hockey League.

The Andersen injury is a potential major concern for obvious reasons: Without him and what he has done in the regular season, the Leafs wouldn’t have been fighting for a playoff spot on the final weekend of the 2016-17 schedule. Roman Polak also left in the second period after suffering what appeared to be a leg injury.

“Not yet”, defenceman Morgan Rielly said.

The Senators’ postseason opponent remains unknown, but they have the luxury of resting players for Sunday’s final regular-season game against the New York Islanders.

Fourteen Capitals have more than 20 points including T.J. Oshie and Ovechkin, who both scored 33 goals this season.

The assist was Nylander’s 26th power-play point of the season, setting a team record for Leafs rookies.

He still is treating the game against the Blue Jackets seriously.

At 11:50, right winger Nikita Kucherov danced around three Leafs defenders and fired a quick wrister that beat Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen for his 39th goal to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead. He couldn’t stop Bournival in the opening minutes of the third though, with the fourth liner tapping in Andrej Sustr’s shot from behind the goal for a 3-1 lead.

But based on the recent results, it shouldn’t make a major difference who is across the ice from the Capitals in the first round. Boyle also showed well at 75 percent, his third-highest total since joining the Maple Leafs. This is the group which needs to lead the Maple Leafs and keep them steady enough to pull off an upset.