Leafs will find out their playoff opponent tonight

The Toronto Maple Leafs will find out their playoff fate tonight.

With 102 points through 80 of 82 games, Toronto has locked themselves into third place in the Atlantic Division and will face one of two familiar foes come postseason time.

It’ll either be a matchup against the Boston Bruins, whom they’ve played three times in the playoffs since 2013, or the Florida Panthers, who eliminated them out of the playoffs last spring in the second round.

The Bruins currently hold a one-game lead on the Panthers for the top spot in the Atlantic Division, having 109 points to Florida’s 108.

Boston will close their regular-season schedule against the Ottawa Senators at home, while the Leafs play the Panthers in Florida’s regular-season finale.

If Boston wins tonight, the division is theirs. Should they lose in regulation, Florida will need one point — either by way of a win or an overtime/shootout loss — against Toronto to clinch the division.

The Leafs, meanwhile, close out their regular season Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who will finish fourth in the Atlantic Division and play whichever team out of Boston or Florida wins the division.

“The biggest challenge is to continue to be yourself. Do the things that you do. If you are in the lineup, you are in the lineup for a reason. No different than the regular season,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said at Monday’s practice when asked about the motivation for his team over the coming weeks.

via ESPN

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, there’s one final playoff spot up for grabs, with four separate teams vying for position. The Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Philadelphia Flyers are all within two points of one another.

The Capitals and Flyers face off against each other tonight, with the Capitals clinching a playoff berth win a win, but possibly being knocked out of the playoff race should they lose and the Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens tonight. The Penguins, meanwhile, are one of the last Eastern Conference teams in action, closing out their season Wednesday night against the New York Islanders.

In any case, it’s set to be a hectic final few days of the NHL season.

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