The Bruins will start the playoffs on Wednesday or Thursday, which they will gladly accept considering their early tee times the past two seasons.
But any smiles have been tempered considering the state of their defense heading into Game 1 on the road against either Ottawa or Washington.
If Toronto loses in regulation to Columbus on Sunday, the Bruins will finish in third place and play the Senators. If Toronto gains 1 point, the Bruins will finish in the second wild-card position as the No. 8 seed and play Washington.
In Game No. 81, Torey Krug limped off in the first period and is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. In the first period of Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Washington at TD Garden, Brandon Carlo needed guidance from David Pastrnak and trainer Don DelNegro to skate off the ice.
“He’s upper-body,’’ said coach Bruce Cassidy. “Obviously he’ll get evaluated and see where he’s at. It didn’t look good when it happened.’’
The force of an Alex Ovechkin hit slammed Carlo’s head into the glass, knocking the rookie defenseman to the ice and leaving him woozy as he retreated to the dressing room. Ovechkin was not penalized.
“I didn’t like it,’’ Cassidy said. “I don’t think it was intentional to hit a guy from behind. It looked like he held up. He still grabbed him. He’s in a vulnerable spot. He went head-first into the glass. Generally there’s a call on that — sometimes two [minutes], sometimes five. But no call at all, I thought was wrong, incorrect. But I don’t think there was an intent to injure, the way I saw it.’’
Krug and Carlo had been part of a defense that had enjoyed excellent health until the final two games. Krug dressed in all but Saturday’s regular-season finale. Carlo became one of three Bruins (Dominic Moore and David Krejci were the others) to play in all 82 games.
Their status now is in question heading into the playoffs. They are players the Bruins can ill afford to lose. Carlo has been Zdeno Chara’s right-hand man on the No. 1 pairing. Krug totaled eight goals and 43 assists while playing heavy five-on-five minutes alongside Adam McQuaid and manning the point on the No. 1 power-play unit.
The Bruins are hurting with two of their top four defensemen banged up. John-Michael Liles, a healthy scratch for most of February and March, is now McQuaid’s left-side partner. Colin Miller, out of uniform for four of the last seven games, took some of Carlo’s shifts on the first pairing against the Capitals.
If neither Krug nor Carlo is available for Game 1, it leaves the Bruins one defenseman short. They might have to sign Charlie McAvoy to an entry-level contract and have the 19-year-old make his NHL debut in the playoffs. Joe Morrow, who last played on Jan. 22, has become an afterthought.
The Bruins could have secured third place in the Atlantic Division and a first-round meeting with Ottawa with any kind of win against the Capitals. But Anton Khudobin lasted just 40 minutes before withdrawing because he was sick, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (8:25 of ice time) learned the hard way how good NHL players are, and the Bruins couldn’t do much of anything against the best team in the league.
“I didn’t feel we were invested enough in most areas of the game to beat the first-place team in the National Hockey League,’’ Cassidy said. “Probably that simple to me. They’re a good hockey club. They don’t have a lot of weaknesses. You’ve got to be on your A-game. We didn’t have our A-game. I don’t know if we were looking ahead, or if it was just the opponent, or it was just one of those days. But we needed to be better if we expected to beat them.’’
Marcus Johansson scored first at 4:21 of the opening period when he cashed in a give-and-go with Justin Williams. Colin Miller responded with a close-range shot past Phillip Grubauer at 15:13 of the second, an instant before Brooks Orpik blasted Drew Stafford into the post and knocked the net off its moorings. Video review confirmed the puck crossed the line before the net came off.
But the Capitals closed out the Bruins with two highly skilled goals in the second. Nicklas Backstrom waited out the Bruins, taking the puck behind the goal line. Backstrom threaded the puck through traffic to Kevin Shattenkirk at the right point. The ex-Blue whistled the puck past Khudobin at 16:09 to break the 1-1 tie.
A second Shattenkirk goal was taken off the scoreboard when Cassidy succeeded with a goalie interference challenge, arguing that Williams interfered with Khudobin. But Washington shrugged off the no-goal to grab a 3-1 lead at 19:10. Rapid-fire passing by Nate Schmidt and Evgeny Kuznetsov resulted in Williams loading up for a one-timer at the left circle. With the Bruins scrambling to catch up, Williams hammered the puck past Khudobin.
It was the last shot Khudobin faced. Tuukka Rask replaced him for the third period, finishing the game with eight saves on eight shots.
“This team’s been through some ups and downs all season,’’ Chara said.
“We created some identity and built some resiliency. So it’s exciting. For most of the guys in the room, it’s going to be the first experience of the NHL playoffs. At the same time, everybody has to go through it the first time. It’s going to be good.’’
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.
