Dominique Easley Jersey from laiyongcai92's blog

SUNRISE Dominique Easley Jersey , Fla. — The Boston Bruins clinched a playoff berth, and just how motivated they will be to beat the host Florida Panthers on Thursday night at the BB&T Center remains to be seen.

The Florida Panthers, on the other hand, are fighting for their hockey lives. They must win their three remaining games — home-and-home with the Bruins sandwiching a contest against the Buffalo Sabres — and hope that either the Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils or Philadelphia Flyers stumble the rest of this week.

“We have to win out,” Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau said. “We have to win every game.”

Meanwhile, the Bruins (49-18-12) are locked in a fight with the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division. Both teams have 110 points, but Boston has one game in hand.

On Tuesday night, the Bruins were embarrassed in a 4-0 loss at the Lightning. It was Boston’s second straight defeat — and that is not the way a team wants to head into the playoffs.

Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask has had a great season with a 2.32 goals-against average and a 34-12-5 record. But his performance on Tuesday against Tampa Bay was not his best.

“Two goals from distance — he’s been better (in other games), and I think he would be the first one to say that,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. “The second goal might have been through traffic. But the first one simply can’t go in.

“We didn’t score … so it might not have mattered.”

So there you have it: A desperate Panthers team that needs to win and hope for help to make it as an Eastern Conference wild-card playoff team competing against a Bruins squad that is already in but wants to be sharper as it prepares for the postseason.

The Panthers are coming off their most dramatic game of the year, a 2-1 home win over Nashville Predators, a team with the best record in the NHL.

With the Panthers clinging to that 2-1 lead, Nashville pulled its goalie for an extra attacker during the final three minutes. Panthers center Aleksander Barkov had a chance at an empty-net goal to ice the game Antonio Callaway Jersey , but his shot hit the post.

Given a reprieve, Nashville turned up the pressure. Incredibly, the Predators scored with 0.3 seconds left as Filip Forsberg tapped in a loose puck. But after a dramatic video review, it was ruled that Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo had stopped the puck before Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson spun him around with his stick.

Goalie interference was the call, and Luongo — naturally — agreed.

“At first, I wasn’t sure what happened,” Luongo said. “But once I saw the replay, the puck was between my legs. (Arvidsson) pitch-forked me. As he spun me around, the puck came loose.

“(The puck) was definitely under me. It was between my legs and covered. Once he spun me around, the puck came out. It’s pretty clear.”

Luongo, who turned 39 on Wednesday, gave a shout out to the replay crew after beating Nashville in career game No. 999

“I was happy they made the right call,” he said. “It would’ve been upsetting if it would’ve been ruled a goal. (During the review), I was trying not to snap if they allowed the goal. That’s what I kept telling myself.”

Boston still has a shot to overtake Nashville in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy Seth DeValve Jersey , trailing by three points with a game in hand.

For Thursday’s game, one player to watch is Florida’s Colton Sceviour, normally a bottom-six forward. In the Panthers’ past two games, however, he made a third-period, game-winning play in each. He got a hit and an assist that led to the winning goal against the Carolina Hurricanes and scored the winning goal against Nashville.

Florida is relatively healthy. Boston, meanwhile, will be without defenseman Brandon Carlo (ankle) and winger Anders Bjork (shoulder). In addition, two key players, winger Rick Nash (upper body) and center Riley Nash (ear), are questionable.

Everyone is accounted for in Minnesota, where good vibes from the top of the organization to the bottom of the roster can only help the Vikings in their attempt to better their NFC championship game appearance from last season.

"All these guys, they like to be around each other. So I think that's part of it A.J. Green Jersey ," coach Mike Zimmer said. "We've got a lot of really good guys on this football team who care about not just them, but they care about each other. It's kind of just the way we do things."

Savvy salary cap management steered by executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski has allowed the Vikings to put the majority of their stars in mutually beneficial multi-year deals, but outside linebacker Anthony Barr, wide receiver Stefon Diggs and defensive end Danielle Hunter have all entered 2018 on expiring contracts that must be addressed soon unless the Vikings are willing to let them become free agents and potentially price the club out on the open market.

Still, all three of them have been practicing with the team this week, clearly confident enough in their future earnings to opt for full participation over mild protest. Barr, for his part, missed one week of organized team activities last month, an absence he said was to secure an insurance policy in case of a severe injury that would derail the value of his next deal. He said recently his hope was to have a new contract in place by the beginning of on-field workouts in May, but that's the closest anyone has come to even hinting about dissatisfaction.

Barr is among the 2014 first-round draft picks who've reached their first career crossroad, playing the fifth option year that the majority of teams have exercised for cost control. Then there are the post-first round 2015 picks such as Hunter and Diggs who've entered the fourth season of their rookie deals.

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell, Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones T.J. Jones Jersey , Tennessee Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan and Oakland Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack have created headlines around the league for staying home this week from minicamp.

"My job is to come in to work, just like you come in to work the same way," Hunter said. "My job is to come in and get on this field and play football."

Clearly, he's been listening to the head coach, as have many of his teammates.

"That's one thing Zim has taught us since he's been here: No one player is more important than the team," Hunter said. "So I guess that kind of grew into the program. The team is way bigger than one person. In order to help the team, you've got to do your job. And we want to be great. We want to be where we need to be. Last year, it wasn't close to that, so we've got to work for that again."