Or was he just trying to avoid the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins?

“We talked about mostly finishing better than last year,” Alfredsson said after the Senators beat Boston 4-2 in the NHL’s rescheduled regular-season finale on Sunday night to earn the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.

“We were eighth last year, so to win here the last game and finish seventh it feels really good. We improved on last year, and that’s what we wanted.”

Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:34 to play, and Kyle Turris added an empty-netter to help Ottawa win the game that was originally scheduled for April 15, the day of the Boston Marathon bombings.

It was the only NHL game on Sunday, with the rest of the league wrapping up the regular season by Saturday.

The victory pushed the Senators past the New York Islanders and into seventh in the East, helping them avoid the Penguins in the first round.

Ottawa opens the series in Montreal on Thursday.

“I think it will be a great series,” Alfredsson said. “The Bell Centre is one of the most exciting buildings to play in. It’s a great hockey town as well. … I think it’s going to be an unbelievable atmosphere in both arenas, and I’m looking forward to a hard-fought series.”

The Islanders will face Pittsburgh in the first round. The Bruins could have won the Northeast Division and earned a No. 2 seed with a win, but they finished fourth in the East and will play Toronto in the first round starting Wednesday in Boston.

“We wanted to win tonight to clinch the division,” Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk said. “Now it doesn’t matter. We have to move forward for the playoffs.”

Boston has not faced the Maple Leafs in the postseason since the first round of the 1974 playoffs. It is the only matchup of Original Six teams in the first round.

“You want to get the No. 2 spot, but at the end it doesn’t matter,” said defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who scored just 14 seconds into the third period to tie it 2-all.

“We still have home ice advantage in the first round, and the first round is always the toughest one to get out of. Everything else doesn’t matter now.”

Robin Lehner stopped 34 shots for the Senators, who had not beaten Boston in their previous 14 tries.

Tuukka Rask made 18 saves for Boston, which had won two straight division titles. He was pulled with about a minute left, but the Bruins couldn’t muster any pressure before Turris’ empty-netter with 37 seconds to play.

Pageau also assisted on Erik Condra’s goal that made it 1-0 with 3 minutes left in the first period. Jared Cowen scored midway through the second to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead.

But the Bruins scored twice in 18 seconds of clock time — on Rich Peverley’s goal with 3.4 seconds left in the second period and again on Seidenberg’s goal 14 seconds into the third.

It was still tied when Pageau swept a rebound past Rask to give the Senators a 3-2 lead. The Bruins couldn’t manage any pressure with Rask pulled for the final minute, and Ottawa clinched on Turris’ empty-netter.

Game notes

The Bruins handed out their regular-season awards before the game: Patrice Bergeron was the recipient of the Eddie Shore Award for hustle and determination and the Elizabeth Dufresne Trophy for outstanding performance during home games. Gregory Campbell earned the John P. Bucyk Award for off-ice charitable contributions, and the three stars went to Rask (first), Bergeron (second) and Tyler Seguin (third). … The rescheduled game almost had to be bumped back when the Celtics’ 1 p.m. game went into overtime. But the Bull Gang got the basketball floor off the ice in time for the 7 p.m. start. … All four Northeast Division teams to make the playoffs are facing each other. … The Senators have never faced Montreal in the playoffs since joining the NHL in 1992.

The post Senators top Bruins in finale as playoff picture set appeared first on IdealCapper.

Al Jefferson had 22 points and eight rebounds to help Utah keep its playoff hopes alive with a 96-80 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night, setting up one more must-win game in the season finale on Wednesday.

“It comes down to one game now,” Jefferson said. “It’s a big game. The only thing we can worry about is what we can control, going out there and trying to take care of the game, and trying to win, and just leave the rest up to the Lakers, I guess.”

Mo Williams had 15 points and seven assists for the Jazz, who needed a win to avoid being eliminated in the Western Conference playoff race.

To get into the playoffs, the Jazz need to win at Memphis on Wednesday and for the Los Angeles Lakers to lose at home against Houston that night. Utah owns the tiebreaker after beating the Lakers two out of three times this season.

“I guess I have to try and get in touch with Kevin McHale and tell him to handle it for me,” said Jefferson, who played for the Rockets’ coach when both were in Minnesota.

Derrick Williams had 18 points and six rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were missing center Nikola Pekovic because of a bruised left calf.

The Jazz entered the night clinging to the postseason picture, down 1½ games to the Lakers with two to play.

For a team that could have as many as nine expiring contracts this summer, the Jazz are desperately chasing one more playoff appearance. Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Mo Williams and Randy Foye all could be looking for new teams when the season ends, with a bevy of young players waiting to assume larger roles next year.

They’ve won nine of their last 11 games since a four-game losing streak in the middle of last month threatened to bury them.

“Talk about this group of guys, man, the character that they have, there was no quit in this group,” coach Tyrone Corbin said. “The guys just continued to work and put ourselves in a position to get back when we were struggling there.”

Utah didn’t play all that well early, but it was just good enough to stay on top of a Timberwolves team that is slogging to the finish of another long season. The Wolves shot just 33 percent in the first quarter, and without Pekovic patrolling the paint they didn’t grab an offensive rebound until late in the third quarter.

A 13-4 run by Minnesota cut Utah’s lead to three points late in the third quarter, but once again the Wolves had no answer for Jefferson. The former Wolf scored 40 against the Wolves in a 107-100 win on Friday night in Salt Lake City and continued to attack the team’s soft middle on Monday night. He scored six straight points after Minnesota’s run to give the Jazz some breathing room again, and they never looked back.

Foye scored 14 points for the Jazz.

“You want to finish up better than that,” coach Rick Adelman said of the home finale. “I know they had something to play for, but it was our last home game. I thought we should have had better effort, but we didn’t.”

The Timberwolves have one game left in what has been a miserable, injury-plagued season. They will enter this offseason as they have every one since 2004 — with a spot in the lottery coming in June and plenty of questions about the roster and who will be back to lead it. Owner Glen Taylor has been mum on president David Kahn’s future. Kahn has a team option on his contract for next season.

Coach Rick Adelman has two years left on his deal, but has considered stepping down to help his wife, Mary Kay, who is being treated for seizures. Her condition caused him to miss 11 games earlier this season. She is due to meet with doctors again shortly after the season ends and Adelman is hoping her condition will continue to stabilize. Before the game, Adelman said he was going forward with the idea that he would be back next season and hoped to have a definitive answer in the next couple of weeks.

“I think what happens with Mary Kay or any of that, that certainly would turn things in a different direction,” Adelman said. “Right now I don’t see that (happening), but I’m going to wait and see until we talk to the doctors and see what direction they’ve decided we need to go at this point. Then we’ll move from there.”

Game notes

Wolves PG Ricky Rubio had a quiet night with six points on 2-for-9 shooting and four assists. … The Wolves finish the season with a game at San Antonio on Wednesday. … It was just the 13th win on the road for the Jazz this season. They’ve won three straight away from home.

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His wife, kids and father-in-law drove down from Buffalo, N.Y., to see Pominville in action against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It was a good night for the former Buffalo Sabres’ captain — he scored a goal and had an assist for his first points for the Wild since his trade last week — in supporting Niklas Backstrom’s 24 saves in a 3-0 Minnesota victory.

“I didn’t really expect them to come down,” said Pominville, acquired with a fourth-round selection in 2014 from Buffalo for goalie Matt Hackett, forward Johan Larsson, a first-rounder in 2013 and a second-rounder in 2014. “I talked to my wife on the phone and everything seemed normal. It was a nice surprise to see her and the kids before the game.”

The win was a big one for the Wild, who snapped a three-game losing streak that included their first shutout loss of the season in their last game.

“You can’t avoid it: Everyone is talking about (the playoffs),” Backstrom said after his second shutout of the season and 28th of his career. “But for us it’s still one day at a time, one game at a time.”

Ryan Suter’s wrist shot in traffic started the scoring, and Charlie Coyle benefited from a perfect pass from Mikael Granlund as the Wild netted two power-play goals in the second period.

Backstrom and his staunch defense did the rest until Pominville scored late off a tape-to-tape pass from Zach Parise.

“What you saw tonight is what our game is supposed to look like,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “I really liked a lot of players tonight. I thought everybody was on top of their game.”

It was a turnaround win for Minnesota, which had also lost four of five since a seven-game winning streak. The Wild scored only three goals in the three-game skid.

“Our last couple of games weren’t what we wanted and it’s nice to kind of get back on track, regroup and get things going again,” Coyle said.

The Wild came in ranked eighth in the NHL in road power plays. After a scoreless first period, the Wild made the most of a hooking penalty on Blake Comeau, who was playing his first home game for the Blue Jackets after being acquired from Calgary for a fifth-round pick.

Suter took a drop pass from Pominville, and Suter tucked a hard wrister from the high slot inside the far post through heavy congestion. It was the fourth goal of the season for Suter, a big-ticket free agent last summer.

Columbus’ Vinny Prospal was called for hooking later in the period, and the Wild cycled the puck while the Blue Jackets tried in vain to clear it.

Granlund slid a backdoor pass from the right wing to Coyle, who had slipped to the left doorstep for a jam shot that made it 2-0 at 15:03.

This defeat was extremely costly to Columbus, which is four points behind eighth-place Detroit in the West.

Now the Blue Jackets have little wiggle room with just nine games remaining in the regular season — including six on the road.

“This one definitely hurts,” said defenseman Jack Johnson, who said Columbus might have to win out to make the postseason.

The Blue Jackets came in having earned points in 16 of 19 games (11-3-5) and riding a four-game winning streak at home. Since their previous regulation home loss on March 7, they had gone 9-0-3 at Nationwide Arena.

“It’s a blow,” coach Todd Richards said of the loss that opened a three-game homestand. “We know what’s ahead of us. The players have talked, we have talked, about the importance of these home games. We lacked energy in the second period. We picked it up in the third, but we still didn’t do enough.”

Marian Gaborik, acquired by the Blue Jackets in a multiplayer deal with the New York Rangers at Wednesday’s trade deadline, was greeted by several signs in the crowd as he made his debut at home.

“We have to stay positive,” Gaborik said. “We have nine games left. We’ll do everything we can to be in the hunt.”

Backstrom was solid when needed. The Wild killed off four penalties, although Backstrom was at his best on even-strength threats. He gloved a hard one-timer by Jack Johnson midway through the first, stymied R.J. Umberger on a rush in the third, and turned aside Cam Atkinson’s blast in transition in the final minutes.

“What can you say about Backie?” Yeo said. “That was a good response by him. That’s what he does.”

Game notes

Columbus D James Wisniewski caught a skate to the leg in the second period and made it to the bench with some difficulty. He returned in the third. … Minnesota, which solidified its playoff spot heading into the final three weeks, ended a streak of five games in which it had allowed the first goal. … Sergei Bobrovsky had 21 saves for the Blue Jackets. … The Wild have 10 games remaining, including six at home.

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Anthony scored 40 points and the Knicks got key contributions from J.R. Smith and Raymond Felton during a 19-5 fourth-quarter run that sparked New York to its 10th straight victory, 95-82 over Atlanta on Wednesday night.

“Melo is smart enough to know that if he’s doubled, he’ll sacrifice the ball,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “And we’ve got enough shooters around him that are making big shots. That opens it up for him even more. And when he gets going like he did tonight, they’re not going to leave him alone very often.”

Anthony, who scored 50 in his last game at Miami, scored 26 in the first half. He commanded more defensive attention in the second half, which left opportunities for Smith, who scored 19, and Felton, who scored 14. Felton’s quickness to the basket resulted in three straight scores during a 12-2 streak that turned a tie game into an 84-74 Knicks lead that was never threatened.

“A lot of (Anthony’s) points came off the bounce, with just two or three dribbles, and then a quick pull-up,” Woodson said. “When he got doubled, he got the ball out. It was kind of nice to play off him tonight.”

Atlanta forward Al Horford admitted, “He hit a lot of tough shots. I think he was very comfortable out there. We probably should have tried to pressure him more.”

Anthony made 17 of 27 from the field and was 5 for 6 at the line. He also had five rebounds and three assists, with only one turnover.

“The rhythm was there and I wanted to see if I still had it going,” Anthony said. “It was just one of those nights once again. I feel like when I have the opportunity, I just want to take my time and take it when I’m open and then find the open man when I’m doubled.”

The game was tied at 72 with 9:48 left when New York took control. The Knicks outscored the Hawks 23-10 the rest of the way, as Felton scored 10 in the final period.

“I think our coverages were bad,” Hawks guard Jeff Teague said. “I should have backed up a little bit on Raymond Felton and let him shoot a contested shot. But I got up a little bit and he used his speed to get by me.”

The win puts New York in sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference.

“This team is playing for something,” Woodson said. “We know every game counts. We’ve had our ups and downs because of injuries, but we’ve just got to finish this regular season out.”

Atlanta lost the opportunity to move into a tie for fourth place in the Eastern Conference and wasted a 25-point effort by Kyle Korver, who came up two points short of his season high.

“They were switching a lot of things trying to take away Josh (Smith) and Al and I was able to get some looks in the first half,” Korver said. “I tried to knock them down.”

Korver moved into third place on the all-time list for consecutive games with a 3-point basket. Korver passed Reggie Miller at 10:54 in the first quarter when he made a 3-pointer from the right side. He’s now connected for a trey in 69 straight games. Korver is still a long away from catching Dana Barros (89 consecutive games), but is within distance of Dennis Scott (78) and Michael Adams (79).

“We played a very hot basketball team,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said. “Particularly Carmelo, who’s playing at a very high level right now, shooting the ball extremely, extremely well. I thought there were times we defended him well. He still made shots.”

Game notes

Atlanta forward John Jenkins missed his third game since suffering a concussion against Boston. … Atlanta’s Devin Harris was not available because of foot injury. He had rehab treatment on Wednesday. … The Syracuse men’s basketball team attended the game. The team is in town to compete in the NCAA Final Four. … Also at courtside was comedian Conan O’Brien.

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Wichita St. vs Ohio St.
When: 7:05 PM ET, Saturday, March 30, 2013
Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, CBS.
PREDICTION: Wichita State 69, Ohio State 66

Oddsmakers currently have the Buckeyes listed as 6½-point favorites versus the Shockers, while the game’s total is sitting at 133.

Carl Hall dominated the undersized Explorers inside, hitting his first five shots and scoring 14 of his 16 points inside the paint. The Shockers recorded 40 points in the paint against La Salle and took 43 shots inside, the most such attempts for a team in this tournament. Wichita State’s tournament opponents – Pittsburgh, Gonzaga and La Salle – each entered their games with the Shockers shooting at least 45 percent, but the teams combined to shoot 35.5 percent against the Missouri Valley Conference’s top-ranked field-goal percentage defense.

Wichita State was a 72-58 winner in its last match at home against La Salle. They covered the 4.5-point spread as favorites.

Team record: 29-8 SU, 19-14-1 ATS

Unlike the play that left Craft open for a 3-pointer against the Cyclones, the pivotal moment in the win Thursday came when Arizona overcommitted to the Buckeyes’ point guard. “It was similar to the play we ran last game,” Ross said. “We like to get the (big men) on a pick-and-roll. It so happened they messed up the switch there and I was able to knock down the shot.” Perhaps one of the biggest turnarounds the team has made lately is beyond the arc. In three NCAA Tournament games, Ohio State is a combined 23-for-46 (50 percent) from the 3-point line after shooting 35.9 percent over its first 33 contests.

Ohio State was a 73-70 winner in their most recent outing at home against Arizona. They failed to cover the 3.5-point spread as favorites.

Team record: 29-7 SU, 20-14 ATS

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“I’m just trying to stay out of the way and focus on what’s in front of me and not worry about anything else,” Smith said at the team’s shootaround Wednesday.

Smith denied having any conversations in the past 24 hours with his agent or with a Hawks front office led by general manager Danny Ferry, who made waves this past offseason by trading Joe Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets. Smith insists he’s concentrating on Wednesday night’s game against the Miami Heat, which could be his last game playing for the team that drafted him.

Selected out of high school at No. 17 overall in the 2004 draft, Smith has become a star in Atlanta. He is averaging 17.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 48 games this season.

Sources told ESPN on Tuesday that the Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics are three teams known to be in talks with Atlanta about the athletic forward ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.

In conversations with the Bucks, the Hawks’ interest is believed to start with Monta Ellis, sources told ESPN on Tuesday, at least in part because Ellis could play next to point guard Jeff Teague.

Barring a deal that featured three or more teams, Boston likely would need to part with Paul Pierce to acquire Smith, which could well rule the Celtics out of the chase for Atlanta’s versatile forward, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported.

Sources told ESPN that the Phoenix Suns, who had shown interest in Smith, are not out of the running.

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The plan, which was put in place years ago by Buss, calls for his daughter, Jeanie, to become the Lakers’ governor and represent the team at the NBA board of governors meetings. She will also handle the business operations of the team.

Buss’ son, Jim, will handle basketball operations of the team.

“The future of the organization will remain unchanged,” Lakers spokesman John Black said Monday. “Dr. Buss set it up years in advance — he planned for the team to remain with the family.

“For the past several years, Jim Buss has been running the basketball operations and working in conjunction with our general manager, Mitch Kupchak, and that will continue. Jeanie Buss has been running the business operations for 15 years, and that will continue. As far as the operation and running of the team, that will be unchanged.”

Black and Buss family spokesman Bob Steiner also said Monday that the Buss family and the six children that now own the team have no plans on selling the Lakers.

“The family has no interest in ever selling the team,” Black said. “The six of them agreed unanimously to keep the team in the family for generations to come.”

Buss’ controlling ownership of the team is now owned by a trust for the benefit of the six children, Black said, and the trust will be managed by Jeanie, Johnny and Jim Buss.

“The entity can’t be split,” Steiner said. “The heirs do not own the team individually. It is a collective.”

Buss had not attended a Lakers game over the last two seasons as he had been in and out of the hospital for the past 18 months. The last game he attended was the Lakers’ second-round series loss to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

“He was more and more giving responsibility to Jeanie and Jimmy in preparation for a complete passing of the torch, but major decisions were still his,” Steiner said. “They are their father’s children, and they knew and believed in the path that he had set and how he wanted things run and they were very well-trained in that. Jerry would not have ceded responsibility unless he was confident.”

Steiner said the family appreciated the media not reporting on Buss’ cancer and condition until it finally broke online last week.

“The family appreciates the media not going public with Jerry’s medical condition and respecting his privacy,” Steiner said. “When the story finally broke, Jerry was not cognizant of it.”

There are plans to honor Buss before Wednesday’s game against the Boston Celtics. The team also is planning a separate memorial service, possibly held at the Nokia Theatre across the street from Staples Center, this week or next week.

Buss continued to watch every Lakers game prior to his death. Steiner said Buss would often watch games with Jim, Jeanie, Joey and Jessie at his bedside.

Buss also was visited in the hospital by Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard among the Lakers’ current players and former players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last year. Buss, however, spent his final days with family members and loved ones.

“The family is doing fine,” Steiner said. “It’s a testament to his determination and will that he lasted this long. The family certainly knew for a while that his passing was imminent, so they’ve had a lot of time to get as used to it as you possibly can.”

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Matt Moulson scored a goal and assisted on another, Evgeni Nabokov stopped 37 shots, and the Islanders dominated listless Pittsburgh 4-1 on Tuesday night.

John Tavares scored for the second straight game for New York while Michael Grabner collected his fourth goal of the season and Casey Cizikas found the net for the first time in his career.

“I don’t consider any win easy but we came out and played the game we wanted to play, and I think we didn’t make the game easy for them,” Tavares said.

The Islanders have won three straight against the Penguins dating back to last season, their longest winning streak in the series in more than five years.

Two of those victories have come on the road, something New York hadn’t done in Pittsburgh since 2002.

While the Islanders aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves just six games into the season, the way they dominated a team considered a Stanley Cup favorite is a welcome confidence boost following a late collapse in a loss to Winnipeg on Sunday.

“I’m sure nobody gave us much of a chance against a really good hockey team, but you know what I thought systematically we were a little more structured, over the last game for sure,” coach Jack Capuano said. “We were a little more sound in a lot of areas tonight.”

Pascal Dupuis scored with just more than a minute remaining to avoid the shutout but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep the Penguins from losing for the third time in their past four games.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 13 shots before being pulled after the second period. Fleury and backup Tomas Vokoun received little help from Pittsburgh’s defense. The Penguins gave it away 11 times, with two of the turnovers leading to New York goals.

“I’m not sure if we’re pressing early, and then it doesn’t happen and you get away from things,” Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby said. “As you see tonight, we get a couple bad bounces, ended up down early and seems like we let that frustration kind of get to us.”

The Penguins had scored first in each of their five games this season, but Cizikas gave the Islanders a well-earned early lead by stealing the puck from Paul Martin deep in Pittsburgh’s zone, then swooping behind the net and wrapping it around an outstretched Fleury.

The goal served as an exclamation point on a period the Islanders dominated in a place where they rarely win. New York went in a loser in 13 of its previous 14 visits to Pittsburgh, the victory a 5-3 triumph last March that derailed any hopes the Penguins had of catching the New York Rangers for the Atlantic Division title.

Pittsburgh expects to be in the mix again during this truncated 48-game season but has hit an early rough patch that left the largest crowd in the brief history of Consol Energy Center voicing its displeasure following another disjointed effort.

The Penguins were drummed 5-2 by Toronto in the home opener last Wednesday and appeared no sharper six days later against another young, quick team that flustered Pittsburgh with its forechecking.

“We want to be a team that plays with pace and (is) tough to play against, and make teams come out of their own end and play a full 200-foot game,” Tavares said. “When we’re skating and getting on the forecheck, that’s when we’re most successful and that’s what we’ve been doing, and I think that was evident tonight.”

Not that the Penguins needed any help giving it away.

The Islanders went up 2-0 at 6:46 of the second period when Pittsburgh defenseman Deryk Engelland misplayed a New York clearing attempt at the blue line.

The puck bounced off Engelland’s stick and the speedy Grabner pounced, beating two Penguins up the ice, then flicking a wrist shot that deflected off Fleury’s glove and into the net.

The goal seemed to briefly energize Pittsburgh, which spent the next five minutes buzzing Nabokov. All the pressure failed to produce a goal, and a pair of power-play tallies by the Islanders late in the period put New York firmly in control.

Tavares wristed a pretty cross-ice pass from Moulson by Fleury to make it 3-0, and Moulson scored less than two minutes later, collecting a long shot off the end boards and stuffing it by a foundering Fleury.

The goaltender actually fell on his rear after the initial shot and failed to get up before Moulson stuffed it by him, a fitting ending to a maddening night.

Nabokov had no such problems. He improved to 10-2 lifetime against Pittsburgh, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, including a fruitless 5 minutes spanning the second and third periods after New York’s Colin McDonald was hit with a boarding penalty and a game misconduct for his hit on Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy.

“We definitely deflated ourselves with the power play,” Pittsburgh’s James Neal said. “But we’ve just got to have a better effort all over the ice, 5-on-5 and we just didn’t have it tonight.”

Game notes

Islanders F Jesse Joensuu is out five to seven weeks after having sports hernia surgery. Joensuu sustained the injury while playing in Europe during the NHL lockout … Pittsburgh D Matt Niskanen is day to day with a right foot injury … The Penguins announced earlier Tuesday that Consol Energy Center will host the second USA Hockey All-American Prospects game Sept. 26, 2013. … The Islanders play at New Jersey on Thursday while the Penguins play in New York against the Rangers.

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Next stop, New Orleans.

After one final practice at their own training facility, the Super Bowl-bound Ravens will take Sunday off before heading for the Big Easy on Monday afternoon in anticipation of their matchup on Feb. 3 against the San Francisco 49ers.

“We’re right where we want to be,” wide receiver Torrey Smith said. “Now we have an opportunity to play in the big one. But at the end of the day, we’re still getting ready for a football game.”

Coach John Harbaugh conducted practice from Thursday through Saturday as if it was a normal work week. They went hard on Thursday and Friday and eased up Saturday.

“We’ve had a great week. We had an excellent practice,” Harbaugh said after the closed two-hour session. “The guys are very sharp and they’re excited. We’ll have to go down there and do just as well (or) do better.”

The next time the Ravens hit the practice field, it will be in New Orleans. This week, at least, there were no distractions.

“I think it’s always important to have a good practice no matter what,” Harbaugh said. “You’ve got to practice well to play well. You pretty much play the way you practice. That’s something that we learned when we were kids and that’s not going to change.”

It was final practice at the team’s training complex for Ray Lewis, who intends to retire after the Super Bowl. Center Matt Birk has made no such announcement, but there is a possibility the 36-year-old is also preparing for his last game.

“I don’t think like that,” Birk said. “I just try to live in the moment. That’s just kind of my mindset. I don’t think about the future or if this could be it. It drives my wife nuts, but that’s just not how I operate.”

Now in his 15th NFL season — the fourth with Baltimore — Birk’s knees are scarred from several operations and he had surgery during the offseason to repair varicose veins in his legs. But he played in all 16 games during the regular season and remained solid in the middle of the offensive line during the postseason.

“I’m not sure about Matt’s plans,” Harbaugh said. “If he decides to come back next year that would be awesome. He’s smart, he’s tough. To my eye, he’s playing the best football that he’s played since he’s been here, right now. To have that be true at the end of a (long) season is very impressive. We would not be where we are without Matt Birk.”

Looking ahead to the challenge next Sunday, Harbaugh called the 49ers “a very well-coached football team.” He said it with a grin, because San Francisco is coached by his little brother, Jim.

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NY Islanders at Boston
When: 7:00 PM ET, Friday, January 25, 2013
Where: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
TV: 7 p.m., MSG-Plus (New York), NESN (Boston)
Prediction: Bruins 5, Islanders 2

Moulson has enjoyed considerable success versus the Bruins, collecting seven goals and as many assists in 12 career contests. Linemate John Tavares, who has five assists in his last two games, recorded one goal and four helpers in four games versus Boston last season. Brad Boyes registered his first goal with his new team on Thursday.

After being hampered by a lower-body injury, defenseman Dennis Seidenberg hopes to return to the ice on Friday. “I feel good,” Seidenberg said after the team’s light workout on Thursday. “I’ll see how I feel (Friday) in the pregame skate. After that, we’ll make a decision.” Rookie Dougie Hamilton has played well in his absence and led all Bruins blue-liners in power-play time during the last game.

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