All talk of what the Boston Bruins didn’t do at key points leading up to where they are right now on the edge of the 2016 NHL playoff cliff aside, it’s pretty simple: they have to beat the Ottawa Senators today.

UPDATE: Jeremy Smith recalled on emergency basis with Tuukka Rask apparently ill and unable to go with he season on the line. Jonas Gustavsson gets the start- arguably facing the greatest pressure in a single game of his NHL career. You want drama? We got drama!

“Somebody Get Me A Doctor”- Van Halen from Van Halen II (1979)

Faceoff is at 12:30 and after Brad Marchand earned the team’s 7th Player Award before Thursday’s big win over Detroit, they’ll do the “shirts off their back” event after the game where select fans will receive the jerseys each Bruin wears for this one after a special drawing. Marchand first won the annual fan recognition for the player who most exceeds expectations as a rookie 20-goal man in 2010-11. He joins Randy Burridge (1986, 1989), Cam Neely (1987, 1994), Bill Guerin (2001-02) and Tim Thomas (2006-07) as the only other players to earn 7th Player honors twice since 1969, when Ed Westfall became the team’s first winner.

No excuses anymore- they have to beat a depleted Senators team and can’t worry about what other teams like the NY Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins (meeting the Red Wings and Flyers today) and the NY Islanders tomorrow (against the Flyers) are going to do. As long as the Bruins win game 82, then they set the best conditions as they exist today for themselves to get in.

If it doesn’t happen, then the hockey season is over.

Pretty simple, right?

Well, not exactly. As posted yesterday- here are the various scenarios as posted by Dominic Tiano:

No more excuses, Bruins- win the game and see what comes next. Lose, and you didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs to begin with.

“No Excuses” Alice In Chains- VEVO- from Jar of Flies (1994)

“Holy Wars…The Punishment Due” Megadeth-VEVO- from Rust in Peace (1990)

“Walk” Pantera- RHINO- from Vulgar Display of Power (1992)

And even if they win, we could be looking at this at the end of it all. That’s the price of not taking control of your own destiny:

“Not Today” Sevendust- SEVENDUST- from Kill the Flaw (2015)

25 weeks, 82 games and countless miles traveled…about to go in the books and another long spring and summer ahead. There can only be one Stanley Cup champion, after all. But we’d be lying if we didn’t acknowledge that the late-season swoon is such a disappointment. Maybe it hasn’t come as a surprise, but the hard work that put the Bruins on the verge of a feel-good, overachieving season has given way to the kind of pessimism that will make a non-playoff finish right near unbearable.