Being healthy in the playoffs is taking priority over seeding [url=http://www.edmontonoilersteamshops.com/authentic-olivier-rodrigue-jersey]Olivier Rodrigue Oilers Jersey[/url] , with a few teams sitting their top players Saturday in the final game of the regular season.

MVP front-runner Taylor Hall will sit out the New Jersey Devils‘ regular-season finale after the team clinched a playoff spot but can still move up the standings.

New Jersey is resting Hall, fellow forwards Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac, and defenseman Sami Vatanen in Game 82 at Washington, and it isn’t alone in taking precautions. The Columbus Blue Jackets won’t play stars Artemi Panarin, Seth Jones, Zach Werenski and two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in their final regular-season game at Nashville.[img]http://www.sndpic.com//nike_nfl_jerseys/nike_denver_broncos/nike_broncos_756.jpg[/img]

Columbus coach John Tortorella told reporters he was ”absolutely not” trying to avoid facing the two-time defending Stanley Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. New Jersey coach John Hynes similarly answered that giving Hall a break is more important after a grueling push to clinch the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2012.

”We’re not looking to get in the playoffs and just be a Cinderella story,” Hynes said before his Devils faced the Metropolitan Division-champion Capitals on Saturday night. ”We’re looking to get in the playoffs and win, and (Hall is) a big part of that.”

Hall, who is one goal short of reaching 40 for the first time in his career, said he’s cool with the decision to rest instead of taking a chance on the eve of the playoffs.

”It’s a good time to get some rest and recuperate a little bit [url=http://www.billsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-harrison-phillips-jersey]http://www.billsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-harrison-phillips-jersey[/url] ,” said Hall, who has 93 points in 76 games and is expected to be a finalist for the Hart Trophy. ”We’ve played a lot of hockey lately, and a lot of the stuff in the standings is out of our hands other than our game.”

No Eastern Conference first-round matchups have been determined going into the final weekend of the season. The only series that’s set is the Winnipeg Jets facing the Minnesota Wild out West as the second- and third-place teams in the Central Division.

There are still numerous combinations of matchups among the seven teams in the East that have clinched, with the Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers still in the running for the final spot. Matchups can make a big difference in how the playoffs go, but players and coaches are careful not to look like they’re favoring one opponent over another.

”I learned a long time ago that you don’t wish for certain opponents,” Devils defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. ”It can backfire very quickly.”

The Tampa Bay Lightning certainly aren’t playing that game. With a chance to clinch first place in the Atlantic Division and avoid facing the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, the Lightning are expected to start backup Louis Domingue in net at Carolina instead of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who leads the NHL in wins.

The Boston Bruins, who could catch the Lightning, are going with backup Anton Khudobin against Ottawa [url=http://www.authenticsdenverbroncos.com/cheap-su_a-cravens-jersey]Su'a Cravens Color Rush Jersey[/url] , but they also play Sunday night against Florida in a game that was rescheduled because of snow.

—

Power forward Robert Williams was projected to be a lottery pick – and that was last year, after his freshman year at Texas A&M.

But there he was, sliding down to the Boston Celtics at the 27th pick in the NBA draft Thursday night.

”It’s not my job to know what the other 26 teams are thinking,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after adding the two-time Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year. ”We thought that he was the right pick for us, and we felt very fortunate to be able to get him.”

A 6-foot-10, 237-pound Oil City, Louisiana, native, Williams was considered a certain first-round pick as a freshman – maybe in the top 10.

But he decided he wasn’t ready. He returned and averaged 10.4 points and an SEC-leading 9.2 rebounds while leading the Aggies to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

”He’s a rim-protector and a rebounder, and he can play above the rim on both ends of the court [url=http://www.authenticsbuffalobills.com/cheap-jeremy-kerley-jersey]Jeremy Kerley Color Rush Jersey[/url] ,” Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said. ”We don’t have much of that.”

Williams, 20, still has some work to do- especially on offense, Ainge conceded.

”He’s still young,” Ainge said. ”He brings an upside. There’s still parts of his game that are untapped. But rim-protection and rebounding, we know that.”

Stevens said current Celtics big men Al Horford and Gordon Hayward will be a big help in getting Williams ready. ”He won’t have any better role models than the guys in front of him,” the coach said.

The Celtics followed an appearance in the 2017 Eastern Conference finals with an offseason overhaul that brought in Hayward and Kyrie Irving. Despite losing both of them to injuries during the season, they returned to the league’s final four thanks in part to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, back-to-back No. 3 picks in the previous two years.

But after stockpiling eight first-round picks in the previous four drafts, including three lottery picks [url=http://www.coloradoavalancheteamshop.com/authentic-sampo-ranta-jersey]Sampo Ranta Blackhawks Jersey[/url] , the Celtics were left with just their own first-rounder this year and no picks in the second. They could have up to four first-rounders next year.

Ainge said he looked into moving up to the top of the draft.

”We spent the last couple of weeks figuring out what the cost was. We knew that was very, very unlikely,” he said.

Acquiring a second-round pick didn’t interest him all that much.

”We don’t need more young players really,” he said. ”We feel good about adding one that does something that we don’t have.”

Speaking at the team’s brand new practice facility, the Auerbach Center, Stevens said Williams was a good athlete with good feet and an arm-span of 7-feet, 5-inches. Williams blocked 155 shots in college – third in Texas A&M history, with 78 as a sophomore that were the second-most in a single season for an Aggie.

”Right now he is an elite athlete, with incredible length,” Stevens said. ”And he plays well above the rim. Obviously [url=http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-alex-mcgough-jersey]http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-alex-mcgough-jersey[/url] , if you can have four shooters in the game and a guy like that rolling to the rim, you can just throw it into the air and he can go get it.”

Because Williams was expected to go higher in the draft, the Celtics did not have a workout for him in Boston. Stevens said having a prospect visit is ”just a formality in a lot of ways” for Ainge and his staff.

”They’ve already watched them pay live a bunch, spent time with their coaches and everybody else,” Stevens said. ”But I don’t think you need to watch must to tell how athletic he is. It’s pretty obvious.”

—

.