Morning Skate: Wire

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

It’s also another game-free day for the Bruins, who were given another day off from practice yesterday.

The B’s will return to the ice at Warrior today ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Leafs at TD Garden.

While the Bruins were hanging out at home yesterday, there were some big time games across the NHL:

• In what was essentially a playoff/last hope game for Buffalo, the Sabres lost to the Florida Panthers in regulation, 2-1.
• The Penguins got pummeled by the Devils, 5-1, and fell out of the playoff picture in the process.

This means that as of this morning, the Bruins are matched up against the New York Islanders in the first round.

Of course, this is all subject to change — the Panthers, Islanders, and Penguins are all clumped together (with Pittsburgh one point behind) and each has four games left.

It’s going to be quite the finish!

The West is pretty chaotic too (though I’m putting this together before Tuesday night’s games end).

Nashville won in OT last night to keep its fading playoff hopes alive, and there’s a massive game tonight between the Flames and the Jets, two teams battling it out for the last wild card spot.

It’s all fun to watch as a neutral observer, that’s for sure!

Today’s discussion topic

Do not feel like you have to chime in if you don’t care, but I’m curious: if you’re a baseball fan, what are your early impressions of the efforts to speed up the games?

I heard a stat earlier this week that baseball games are something like 25 minutes faster on average so far this year, which is pretty wild.