The B’s back home for tail end of back-to-back weekend games.
Just the facts
When: Tonight, 7 PM
Where: TD Garden — Boston, MA
How to follow: NESN, NHL Network, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Opposing perspective: The Cannon
Know your enemy
- 8-13-4, 20PTS, 3rd in the Metropolitan Division
- Zach Werenski: 1G-17A-18PTS; Boone Jenner: 12G-5A-17PTS; Ivan Provorov: 2G-13A-15PTS
- Elvis Merzlikins: 6-8-3, 3.04 GAA, .911 save percentage
Game notes
- The Boston Bruins are back home after a quick road match to face the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight at the TD Garden for the two’s second meeting in a week.
- It wasn’t pretty the last time the Bruins saw the Blue Jackets on Nov. 27 with ultimately saw the B’s lose 5-2. They fell behind 3-0 by the end of second period and dug themselves further in a hole, down 4-0 a few minutes into the third. Matt Poitras made it 5-1, but Danforth regained the four-goal lead for his team. Beecher notched a goal, but it was too little too late, making the final score a 5-2 loss.
- The Blue Jackets are 1-1-0 since seeing the Bruins. They last played on Thursday, beating Ottawa Senators, 4-2.
- For Columbus, Johnny Gaudreau has five points on one goal and four assists in his last five games.
- Before this weekends’ games, Brad Marchand hasn’t picked up a point since Nov. 20. While he’s having a production slump in the sense of points, he’s generating new chances for whoever is on his line — including recent linemates. Poitras and Jake DeBrusk have reaped some benefits.
- DeBrusk registered a goal against San Jose, picking up his third goal in five games (*stats prior to Saturday’s game). Poitras has three points in his last five games after only registered one point in the previous six games.
- Danton Heinen also continues to be an asset on the ice for the Bruins. He’s registered a point in five out of six games, with two goals, before yesterday’s game.
- Oskar Steen got back into the lineup last night, taking Johnny Beecher’s spot. We’ll see if it sticks tonight as Jim Montgomery had said he made the switch because they felt Beecher was performing recently like he had in games prior.
- Projected lines for last night’s game were different from Thursday’s as Montgomery previously said after Thursday’s win he’d make adjustments specifically for the Toronto game. It will be a waiting game to see what lines will be against Columbus.
- See ya tonight!