On the rest vs. rust debate. Ever since the play-in tournament started, I've been hoping top seeds would adjust how they finish out the season.
Every single team's final regular season game will be played this Sunday, and for a while now, team's with their playoff spot secured typically take that game off. But now because of the play-in, that means teams seeded 1-6 won't play again until the following Saturday/Sunday. That's a week off for them all.
For the 3/6 and 4/5 match ups, not a big deal because they'll all have the same amount of rest/rust.
For the 2/7 match up, it's not as big of a deal, because #7 will be secured on Tuesday, so they're still going into the playoffs with 3-4 days rest.
But for the 1/8 match up (which I think will always start on Sunday due to the final play-in being on a Friday). The #8 seed will go into the playoffs having played twice in the last week, and coming off at least 1 win (possibly 2). Theoretically they should be most in sync, not at all rusty, which would give them best chance to steal Game 1, especially when going against a team who hasn't played in more than a week.
Based on FLCeltsFan next game thread, all the starters are questionable for today. If they sit out Sunday too, that will be 9 days off before Game 1. Taking today's game off makes sense (since it's a back-to-back), but I hope the team goes hard on Sunday, just to help gear up for the playoffs.