• The New York Rangers didn’t do the Bruins any favors last night by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3, in regulation. With their win, however, the Rangers have kept their playoff hopes alive — another regulation-time win tomorrow against the Flyers, and they’re in.
• Boston will have to take matters in their own hands now: “Win and you’re in”.
• This is the 174th time in this lifetime series (including franchise totals as the Hartford Whalers) with the Bruins having a 91-64-16-2 record and 598-516 scoring edge. Boston is 2-1-0 on the season against the ‘Canes.
• The Bruins conclude their NHL-season-high 17th set of back-to-back games this season, with game 81 today and 82 tomorrow in Washington. Boston holds a 6-7-3 record in the first game, and are 8-6-2 in game twos.
• Boston’s goaltending is flirting with another Jennings Trophy this season — up from 2.42 goals-against on Mar. 23 to 2.32 entering today’s contest — thanks to Tuukka Rask. The 22-year-old  needs some serious consideration for Calder Trophy this season as the NHL’s rookie of the year, as he tops all goaltenders in goals-against average (1.97) and save-percentage (.931) in 44 games played. Add on another 10 games or so, and the Finland native could be a top-3 candidate for the Vezina.
• Rask is also 3-1-1 in his last six games played with one shutout, a .960 save-percentage (144 saves on 150 shots-against) and a goals-against average south of 1.20. No wonder he was the NHL’s Third Star of the Month.
• Not so powerful-play: After going 0-for-5 on the power play last night, the B’s have been held scoreless with the man advantage in six straight games, 0-17.
• Man-down: Overshadowed by their anemic PP, Boston’s penalty-kill remains among the best in the NHL — having successfully killed-off 14 of their last 15, and 27 of 30 in their last 11 games.

Who’s Hot:

• Satan Scores:  Three goals in his last three games
• Quit the Wideman “boos”: A three game point streak with 2-1–3 totals and 3-4–7 totals in his last 10.
• One man Recchi’ng Crew: 3-3–6 totals in his last eight games.
• Busted-beak Big Z:  A three game point streak with 0-3–3 totals and 2-6–8 totals in his last nine contests.
• Holy Krejci: With 3-7–10 totals in his last nine contests and 6-13–19 over his last 18 games played.
• Looch! It’s 2008-09!: two game point streak with two assists and 1-5–6 totals in his last ten contests.

On the Bruins huge two-point victory over the Buffalo Sabres: “It was for sure big points on the line and so we are happy with the win and we got to get ready for next game.” Zdeno Chara said to the media on Thursday night. “We’ll see what’s going to happen around the league but we can’t rely on other teams losing. We got to keep moving forward and try to win as many games as possible ’til the end, which is two games left.”