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SUNRISE Ezekiel Elliott Jersey Womens , 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 James Daniels Bears 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 Lamar Jackson Color Rush 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.

The Detroit Lions have desperately tried to improve what has been a weakness, signing and drafting players to improve their running game.

Detroit ranked last in the NFL last season in rushing offense and has been among the league’s worst on the ground offensively in recent seasons.

Lions general manager Bob Quinn has made it a priority to fix the problem.

He signed veteran LeGarrette Blount in free agency and moved up in the draft to select Kerryon Johnson in the second round.

The newcomers will compete with or perhaps push out Ameer Abdullah in what has become a crowded backfield with running backs Theo Riddick, Zach Zenner and Dwayne Washington also on the roster.

”We got a lot of talent,” Johnson said Tuesday after a minicamp practice. ”A lot of these guys are good. I’m stepping into a lot of competition. A lot of these guys have played in the past. A lot of these guys want to keep playing in the future.

”At the end of the day Bengals Elite Jerseys , it’s going to make us all better.”

Detroit selected Frank Ragnow 20th overall in the draft, counting on him to play alongside four returning starters to bolster the offensive line. The former Arkansas center looks as if he’s getting a shot to play left guard with the first-string offense.

”He just kind of fits in with the group,” coach Matt Patricia said. ”You’re not really looking at it and saying, `That’s out of place,’ like it looks like it’s out of place. I haven’t noticed that at all.”

Anyone watching the Lions, especially under former coach Jim Caldwell , noticed they simply couldn’t run the ball well consistently.

That played a part in Caldwell getting fired and Matthew Stafford directing a one-dimensional offense that led to him being sacked 47 times last season.

In short-yardage situations, especially near the goal line, Quinn saw the Lions come up short all too often and frankly acknowledged their toughness was lacking.

”That bothered me,” he said after the draft. ”So, I took it upon myself to implement some changes in terms of what we want to do.”

The first change Quinn made to address the issue in the offseason was adding the 31-year-old Blount in the opening days of free agency. He helped Philadelphia and New England win the past two Super Bowls and reunited with an executive he knew from their time together with the Patriots.

If the season started this week, it appears the 6-foot, 247-pound Blount would be the No. 1 running back.

”He’s obviously a big dude,” Stafford said last month. ”Big http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-cody-latimer-jersey , physical guy. Obviously, has played in some big-time games for some successful teams.”

If Detroit doesn’t block better, though, it may not matter who is running the ball.

The Lions didn’t have a true fullback on their roster last season and now they have a pair of them, converting Nick Bellore from linebacker and drafting Nick Bawden in the seventh round. More importantly, they invested a first-round pick in Ragnow to effectively replace Travis Swanson.

”On paper should our run game be better? Yeah, probably,” Quinn has said. ”The pieces are there. Now it’s really up to all of us in the building to kind of make sure these guys produce at a high level.”

NOTES: Safety Glover Quin participated in minicamp after missing voluntary workouts earlier in the offseason. When Quin was asked if he was considering retirement, he paused for several seconds before saying, ”No.”

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