Morning Skate: Settled

Marathon Monday!

If you’re one of the lucky Bay Staters who has today off, enjoy the day. If you’re not, well...it’s Monday.

The Bruins took care of business on Saturday, clinching a playoff spot — at long last. We all knew this was coming, of course, but the way the Bruins went about it induced at least a small bit of anxiety.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture is (not quite officially) set in terms of teams, with only Washington yet to clinch (as of Sunday night).

Things are bit less settled out West. The Avalanche clinched the West’s top seed, but Dallas, Nashville, Las Vegas, and Vancouver are among the teams jockeying for playoff positions.

Should make for a fun stretch run!

The Bruins celebrated their clinching with an off day yesterday; they’ll be back on the ice this morning at 11 AM.

After that, we should get further updates on the status of some of the injured guys.

The B’s aren’t the only ones dealing with injury troubles either, as the Carolina Hurricanes, currently flip-flopping with the New York Rangers for first in the Metro, saw both Frederik Andersen and Jordan Staal leave Saturday’s loss with injuries.

What’s on tap for today?

Today’s discussion topic

Are you prepared for the runaway Georgii Merkulov hype train? I am.

Kidding aside, he had a nice debut weekend — can’t ask for much more than that.