It\u2019s been a long road, but for the last time in the regular season the Carolina Hurricanes will take the ice in the Lenovo Center. They\u2019ll do so\u2014again stop me if you heard this before\u2014with a chance to clinch the Metropolitan Division and home ice advantage in at least the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they\u2019ll do so against a team that could potentially be coming back to Lenovo in two weeks as their first round opponent.<\/p>\n
Seriously, who dreamed up this schedule?<\/p>\n
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Let\u2019s start with our regular update of where things stand for your Canes. As a reminder, the best that Pittsburgh can do mathematically is tie Carolina in points\u2014but if they do that by winning all their games in regulation, they\u2019d actually get the Metropolitan title thanks to the Regulation Win (RW) tiebreaker. Pittsburgh doesn\u2019t play again until Thursday, so unlike the last two games, Carolina won\u2019t be peeking up at the scoreboard to see if Pittsburgh did the work for them. Tonight they have to do the work to clinch, and they can do so by at minimum getting this game against Boston to Overtime. Do that, the Metro is theirs. That simple.<\/p>\n
As far as things go for first place in the East overall, thanks to Buffalo beating Tampa last night the Canes sit alone atop the East at 104 points. Tampa and Buffalo are tied in points right now but Tampa has played one less game so they technically lead the Atlantic. Despite the loss Tampa is still in control of the Atlantic thanks to that game in hand, a tie in RW having played one less game than Buffalo, and having two more Regulation and Overtime Wins (ROW) than Buffalo. Both teams sit two points ahead of Montreal, but Montreal and Tampa will face off on Thursday in Montreal, and that\u2019s after Montreal \u201cplays\u201d Florida tonight who appears to have already made their reservations for the offseason based on their back-to-back in Pittsburgh this weekend.<\/p>\n
As for Boston\u2014the play of the top three in the Atlantic has them five points from moving out of the wild card, but they only have four games to do so. Two of those games are against the Hurricanes, one is against Tampa, and the other is Columbus. Thus, it\u2019s pretty likely that the best Boston can hope for is a wild card slot, and as they sit five points ahead of the mass of humanity fighting for WC2, it also seems likely they\u2019ll be wild card one. A win tonight would help that out immensely.<\/p>\n
Boston comes into tonight having dropped an overtime game to the surging Flyers on Sunday. They\u2019ve been fortunate to some extent that they had built a bit of a cushion recently because that point they got against Philly was their only one in the last three games. This includes a loss on the road to Tampa and to Florida before that. Tonight is the last of this four game road trip before they get a nice three-day stretch off to play their last three of the season.<\/p>\n
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Thus, it\u2019s understandable that this could be seen as a potential first round preview. With Carolina having the luxury of a large lead over the second place Penguins and the pain of a four game road trip that starts in Chicago and goes to Utah, Philly, and Long Island, it\u2019s widely expected that after the Hurricanes clinch we\u2019re going to see a lot more rosters that resembled Sunday\u2019s game in Ottawa. In fact there\u2019s a pretty good chance that with the amount of cap room Carolina has the last couple games of the season will be like preseason games to give players from the playoff-bound Chicago Wolves a chance to get some NHL action, not to mention allow for players like Nicolas Deslauriers, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Mike Reilly to get some game action in before the playoffs in case they are called on.<\/p>\n
That said, it would appear after today\u2019s morning skate<\/a> Carolina is at least acknowledging the importance of the game tonight in front of the home crowd. The lines and roster are almost all the way back to they had been for the last couple weeks. However, the one change may also note just how serious they are taking tonight. Deslauriers is in while Robinson is out, and that\u2019s a nod to the fact as Ryan Henkel notes<\/a> the Bruins are a physical team and with their recent run they\u2019ll probably turn that up to try and end the road trip on a good note. The goalie rotation continues as Brandon Bussi finally gets a chance to play against his old squad.<\/p>\n It should be a fun time in Lenovo, if you aren\u2019t going to make the game, here\u2019s how you can catch the action:<\/p>\n Time:\u00a07 PM<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network in the Carolinas. Mike Maniscalco will handle play-by-play alongside Tripp Tracy doing color. Hanna Yates and Shane Willis will provide off-ice reports.<\/p>\n