You hate to ever overstate the importance of one game, but is this the most important game of Matt Lafleur’s career?
Win, and no matter what happens in the divisional round, I can wrap my head around the logic of “look, even with all the injuries we had, we were still one of the final 4 teams in the conference”, and MLF and Gute getting extended. I may not agree with it, but I can see it.
Lose… and it’s a lot tougher to justify. You can still point to the injuries, but a 5 game losing streak to finish the season, another one and done… it’s not the best time to hand out an extension and just basically admit that the status quo is fine.