A return to the house of horrors.
Just the facts
When: Tonight, 7 PM
Where: Amerant Bank Arena – Sunrise, FL
How to follow: TNT, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Opposing perspective: Litter Box Cats
Know your enemy
- 12-5-1, 25PTS, 2nd in the Atlantic Division
- Sam Reinhart: 13G-12A-25PTS; Aleksander Barkov: 6G-11A-17PTS; Matthew Tkachuck: 3G-14A-17PTS
- Sergei Bobrovsky: 9-4-1, 2.28 GAA, .917 save percentage
Game notes
- Don’t look now — as strong as the Bruins’ start has been, the Panthers are just four points behind them in the Atlantic Division (albeit with an extra game played). Hey, at least if they were to finish 1-2, the B’s could avoid a first-round playoff match-up!
- As a reminder in case you breeze through the parts above, tonight’s game is nationally televised (in the US) on TNT.
- Florida has been on quite a roll lately, winning seven of their last eight games. The lone hiccup in that stretch came in a 2-1 loss to a good Kings team in Los Angeles last week.
- The Bruins beat Florida in this season’s first match-up between these two teams, a 3-2 OT win at TD Garden on October 30. Throw the cat off the cliff, etc.
- It’s silly to focus on it too much, but it’s hard to completely forget the absolute s***show of a game the Bruins played last time they were in this arena (which has a different name than it did a few months ago). That Game 6 still drives me insane.
- When you look at the Panthers’ team stats, nothing really jumps out as “elite.” Their power play and penalty kill are below average. Their offense is middle of the road. They do have the league’s 9th-stingiest defense, however. As we’ve seen in the past, stats don’t always tell the whole story, and they’ve been finding ways to win lately.
- Aleksander Barkov recently suffered a knee injury and is officially termed day-to-day; he didn’t play in Florida’s last game, a win over Edmonton.
- The Bruins will be looking to bounce back with a tighter overall game than the one they played in Tampa on Monday night. A good start would be to try to avoid giving the opposition six power plays, if possible.
- As mentioned in the Tampa recap, Matt Poitras, Jakub Lauko, and Oskar Steen all saw their ice time reduced on Monday night. I don’t think there will be any significant lineup changes, but I’m curious to see if any of them get a longer leash tonight.
See ya on TNT!