Boston Bruins Should Go All-out Thursday Against Ottawa, Rest Saturday

Last year, the Boston Bruins annihilated the Montreal Canadiens in the final installment of their season series, 7-0, improving to 2-3-1 in that matchup on the year. A month later, despite initial slippage in the first two games, the third-seeded Bruins dislodged the sixth-seeded Habs from the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The year prior, on the last Thursday of the regular season, the soon-to-be Northeast Division champion Buffalo Sabres started Patrick Lalime over Ryan Miller in their last bout with the Bruins. One might dismiss the events as unrelated, but when those teams met later in the month, sixth-seeded Boston knocked off Miller and the Sabres in six games.

Did it hurt the 2009-10 Sabres not to start their top stopper in the last installment of what turned out to be a playoff preview? That theory cannot be utterly disproven, especially considering the Bruins’ struggles entering that postseason, in which they were not even assured a spot until the next game.

There is not much left to decide in the 2012 playoff bracket, but that is all the more reason for the Bruins to avoid the same mistake they might have capitalized on two years ago.

Although a technical tie was still possible entering Tuesday night’s action, the Sabres cannot catch the Ottawa Senators for seventh place by virtue of winning fewer regulation or overtime decisions.

The eighth-place Washington Capitals are one regulation, overtime or shootout loss away from losing their chance to lasso the Senators. And the sixth-place New Jersey Devils are not likely to gain four fewer points than Ottawa over their last three games, their prerequisite to forfeiting their slot to the Senators.

Translation: Boston is 99.9 percent guaranteed to host Ottawa in the playoff opener, likely one week to the day from Thursday’s regular-season meeting over at Scotiabank Place.

Having won the first four installments of their season series and lost the most recent, the last thing the Bruins want to do is hand out free confidence to their inevitable first-round adversary.

Accordingly, Saturday’s season finale versus the Sabres will be the right day to rest as many key skaters as possible and to give goaltender Tim Thomas a second genuine day off. Thomas and his Praetorian Guard have a tone to set when it comes to facing the Senators.

Look no further than an equally certain conference quarterfinal clash between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. After Sunday’s feisty third period at Consol Energy Center that featured six goals, 56 penalty minutes and umpteen highlight-reel confrontations, the intrastate rivals will doubtlessly elect to tune up rather than let up in Saturday’s rematch at Wells Fargo Center.

Even if home ice is already determined at that point, neither team will want to concede a mental edge when they are on the cusp of meeting yet again to commence the second season.

It should be the same attitude between the Bruins and Senators. Assuming everyone is healthy, the top goalie, top six defensemen and top 12 strikers for the playoffs should be determined by their respective coaches. And they should be determined to arm themselves with authentic poise for their first-round matchup.

Granted, the Bruins could still have a second-round encounter with Tuesday’s opponent from Pittsburgh or even Saturday’s visitor from Buffalo. But simply put, they are only assured of a passport to the conference quarterfinals and should only focus on taking their fortuitous opportunity to gear up for that.

The Sabres defaulted on that opportunity in 2010, and all we know for sure that it did not help their cause.

So head coach Claude Julien should, by all means, go crazy as planned, with Thomas sitting out and fresh-out-of-college defenseman Torey Krug suiting up on Tuesday. Krug, goaltender Anton Khudobin and other soon-to-be Black Aces might as well whet their NHL blades a little more on Saturday.

But there are still some intangible, but indispensible stakes to be gained in Thursday’s tilt with Ottawa.

For both clubs, that will be the playoff PSAT. It doesn’t technically count, but all who are slated to take the real test should still be required to take part.