Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs preview: Everyone wants a Bruins win

Just the Facts:

Game Time: 7:00 PM, The Gahden.

TV Broadcast: NESN, NBCSN, TVA, SN360

Radio Broadcast: 98.5 The Sports Hub and probably whatever Pravda is in Canada

Rival SB Nation Site: Pension Plan Puppets

Series Record: Bruins 1-1-1 vs. Maple Leafs

Season Record: 40-25-13, 93 points (2nd Wildcard, 4th in FlorthEast), 29-43-6, 64 points (4th-last in league)

Bruins lines, from dailyfaceoff.com:

Yep, Pastrnak was skating on the Cement Shoes Line this morning. However,

Those are the same lines that ended Thursday's game and scored 3 goals in the 3rd period.

— Dan Cagen (@DanCagen) April 4, 2015

And Defensive Pairings:

And for the jerks across the ice:

Bruins Injuries: Marc Savard, Dougie Hamilton, Kevan Miller

Toronto Injuries: Nathan Horton, Roman Polak, Stephane Robidas, Peter Holland

Game Notes

The Toronto Maple Leafs need this loss to stay ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes in the loser standings. It's unlikely they'll catch Edmonton (5 points ahead, er, behind) but if the Leafs stay losing they can finish in 4th and guarantee a top-5 pick. And that's how people have been characterizing the upcoming draft, mostly: 2 franchise centers and 3 more very good players behind that. Then, a normal draft.

As for the Bruins, a win tonight would go quite a ways towards securing a playoff spot. I'm writing the preview and I can't shut up about the chart I made so here it is again, with a new face on it. Yep, that's right. Pittsburgh has been passed by Washington for the 3rd place in the PatrickPlus division:

Place	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	ROW	Pot	Max	Pit	Det	Bos	Ott	Flo
WC1	Pittsburgh Penguins	77	42	24	11	95	38	10	105	--	8	6	5	0
FE3	Detroit Red Wings	77	40	24	13	93	37	10	103	12	--	8	7	2
WC2	Boston Bruins	78	40	25	13	93	37	8	101	12	10	--	7	2
Out	Ottawa Senators	77	39	26	12	90	33	10	100	15	13	11	--	5
Out	Florida Panthers	78	36	27	15	87	28	8	95	18	16	14	13	--

(Pot = potential future points, Max =  Maximum possible points. Columns to the right of Max contain "magic numbers" for team on left to finish ahead of team on top.)

Never Forget:

We've all seen the game 7 collapse quite a few times. In deference to our friends up north, I will instead give us something from this year, when Gregory Campbell was left all alone in front of the net and scored a short-handed goal:

Advanced Stats

You are correct. @jpbarry77 I've been operating on the assumption Greg Campbell is terrible... care to confirm? pic.twitter.com/QMPG19PVw1

— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) April 4, 2015

Enjoy the game!