Kicking back and watching hockey on Thursday night, the Boston Bruins could have officially clinched a berth in the Eastern Conference playoffs if three results had gone their way. One did with the Columbus Blue Jackets losing, but the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings secured wins.
With three games remaining in the regular season, the Black and Gold will begin their quest for a postseason berth on Saturday afternoon at the TD Garden when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning. A win in any fashion and Boston is officially back in the postseason. Lose in any fashion, and they'll either have to wait on results later in the day or win Sunday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. As far as Morgan Geekie is concerned, he would like to see it done sooner rather than later.
“I think it kind of speaks for itself. Just the magnitude of these games and how important they are to getting off on the right foot. We’re kind of just focused on tomorrow. We know we can kind of control our own destiny. Just try to put ourselves in a position to play a good, solid 60 minutes,” Geekie said. “I think for us to win the next game and just take a deep breath and kind of reset before the playoffs would be great. We’ve got a big task tomorrow. They’re a good team.”
Tampa Bay is a good team, but they are playing their fourth straight game on their current road trip since Monday night. Boston could take advantage of that and secure their spot in the playoffs, or it could sweat a little more and wait.
Bruins send Lukas Reichel to Providence
When the Bruins signed prospect James Hagens to his entry-level contract earlier this week, it created a logjam in the lineup for Marco Sturm. You knew that there needed to be a roster move of some kind to make it work.
Sturm made it clear that Hagens is not going to be in the lineup on Saturday against Tampa Bay, but to make room for the first-round pick in last June's draft, Boston announced on Friday that they were sending Lukas Reichel to the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL). he was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline last month.
Marco Sturm explains James Hagens out of the lineup on Saturday
Sturm made it clear that Hagens was not getting thrown into the fire against Tampa Bay on Saturday. A lot of Bruins fans are asking why? Sturm had an answer.
“He just needs time to get used to our system,'' said Sturm. "That’s the biggest thing. We are not going to throw that kid in and fail. I don’t want to do that. He is on the right track. Like I said yesterday, that is our next step. We will take it day by day and find the right time.”
If the Bruins clinch on Saturday, he'll likely play against either the Blue Jackets or New Jersey Devils to close out the regular season.