Playoff dreams hang in the balance as the Senators take on the Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
One of the interesting NHL debates in recent years has been the idea of expanding the Stanley Cup Playoffs to allow for bubble teams to participate in a play-in round that would determine bottom seedings just before the official post season begins.
When asked about it before the start of last year's Stanley Cup Final, Commissioner Gary Bettman didn't care much for the idea.
“We had a play-in,” Bettman said. “Did you know that three clubs' positions in the playoffs weren't determined until the last game that they played in the regular season?”
He's quite right, of course. Like it or not, the parity that the NHL has created with the salary cap and three point games has led to more teams staying alive right into the final week.
Saturday afternoon's game on Long Island between the Senators and the New York Islanders (1 pm) isn't a play-in game, but in every way but name, both teams will be treating it exactly like a playoff game.
The Senators are in the driver's seat for the final wild card spot. They need to pull three points out of their final three games, and if they do that, then nothing that happens in their rear view mirror will matter. They're in.
Their fastest route to clinching would be a win over the Islanders on Saturday in any fashion and the Detroit Red Wings losing later on in any fashion to the New Jersey Devils (5 pm).
The Islanders are three points behind the Senators, but only one point behind Philadelphia, which holds down third in the Metro.
Here are Saturday's line combinations (per NHL.com)
Senators projected lineup
Drake Batherson -- Tim Stutzle -- Claude Giroux
Brady Tkachuk -- Dylan Cozens -- Ridly Greig
Nick Cousins -- Shane Pinto -- Michael Amadio
Warren Foegele -- Lars Eller -- Fabian Zetterlund
Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot -- Jordan Spence
Lassi Thomson -- Nikolas Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark
James Reimer
Scratched: Stephen Halliday, Kurtis MacDermid, Cameron Crotty
Injured: Nick Jensen (lower body), Dennis Gilbert (upper body), Tyler Kleven (upper body)
Islanders projected lineup
Anders Lee -- Bo Horvat -- Simon Holmstrom
Calum Ritchie -- Mathew Barzal -- Brayden Schenn
Maxim Shabanov -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau -- Emil Heineman
Ondrej Palat -- Casey Cizikas -- Marc Gatcomb
Matthew Schaefer -- Ryan Pulock
Adam Pelech -- Tony DeAngelo
Carson Soucy -- Scott Mayfield
Ilya Sorokin
David Rittich
Scratched: Anthony Duclair, Adam Boqvist, Isaiah George
Injured: Kyle Palmieri (ACL), Alexander Romanov (upper body), Semyon Varlamov (knee)