The Boston Bruins (40-24-8) host the high-flying Minnesota Wild (41-20-12) inside TD Garden on Saturday evening.
It's another game in the razor-thin Eastern Conference Wild Card Race, where Boston already received a boost.
The Ottawa Senators blew a 2-0 lead and lost 4-2 in regulation to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who were playing without Nikita Kucherov.
Elsewhere, in less good news for Boston, the New York Islanders pummeled the Florida Panthers in New York.
The Bruins remain in a pole position, but will only remain there if they keep on winning. A regulation loss today could end with Boston falling outside the playoff cut line, depending on how some other results play out.
One to watch is the Columbus Blue Jackets hosting the San Jose Sharks, where the Jackets are saving starter Jet Greaves for tomorrow's game against the Bruins.
Boston won’t make any lineup changes. The biggest decision was in in goal, whether the B's would start Jeremy Swayman or Joonas Korpisalo.
Korpisalo started in Wednesday's win against the Buffalo Sabres.
Saving Swayman for tomorrow night might make a lot more sense than not, but Head Coach Marco Sturm could continue to rotate the pair.
Sturm ultimately decided to start Swayman, and told the media (per Scott McLaughlin) he’s a candidate to start tomorrow night as well.
That would mark a change from the rest of this season’s precedent, where Sturm’s always rotated in a back-to-back scenario.
Obviously, the stakes may never get higher than these 48 hours. It makes sense to trust Swayman with both ends, when push comes to shove.
Forward Lines:
Marat Khusnutdinov – Fraser Minten – David Pastrnak
Casey Mittelstadt – Pavel Zacha – Viktor Arvidsson
Lukas Reichel – Elias Lindholm – Morgan Geekie
Tanner Jeannot – Sean Kuraly – Mark Kastelic
Defense & Starting Goaltender:
Jonathan Aspirot - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Mason Lohrei
Nikita Zadorov - Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman