Thrashers fly into The Hub to take on Bruins in Festivus showdown

The Bruins will host the Atlanta Thrashers tonight at the TD Garden. The Bruins will be gunning for their second straight win after shutting out the Ottawa Senators on Monday, while the Thrashers will try to end a 2-game skid.

Know Your Enemy

Atlanta Thrashers (18-13-4, 2nd in Southeast, 6th in East)

Head Coach: John Anderson (2nd Year, 53-54-10)

SB Nation's Thrashers Blog: Bird Watchers Anonymous

Leading Goal Scorer:

Ilya Kovalchuk

#17 / Left Wing / Atlanta Thrashers

Height: 6-1

Weight: 230

Born: Apr 15, 1983

Goaltending:

Ondrej Pavelec

#31 / Goalie / Atlanta Thrashers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 200

Born: Aug 31, 1987

Johan Hedberg

#1 / Goalie / Atlanta Thrashers

Height: 6-0

Weight: 190

Born: May 05, 1973

Injury Report

Angelo Esposito (out for season; knee) and Kari Lehtonen (IR; back) are also injured.

Lines & D-Pairs:

Boston

Atlanta

Ilya Kovalchuk - Nik Antropov - Maxim Afinogenov

Slava Kozlov - Rich Peverley - Bryan Little

Evander Kane - Todd White - Colby Armstrong

Eric Boulton - Marty Reasoner - Chris Thorburn

Zach Bogosian - Ron Hainsey

Tobias Enstrom - Pavel Kubina

Boris Valabik - Chrisoph Schubert

Notes:

- The Bruins and Thrasher met on 11/19 with the B's winning 4-3 in a shootout

- The Thrashers are currently negotiating with Ilya Kovalchuk on a contract extension

- Zdeno Chara talked about facing Ilya Kovalchuk during Tuesday's NHL Winter Classic Conference Call:

"I think we all know that Ilya is an extremely talented player with a lot of skill and a lot of speed in his game. He's a natural sniper and that's what he does, what he does best, scoring goals, and for sure, he's very dangerous. Any time you play against a guy like that, you have to be on your toes and be ready to play the game and try to take away the time and space from him."

- The Bruins broke in some of their Winter Classic gear at practice on Tuesday. The team wore their brown pants and helmets.

- Milan Lucic skated before practice yesterday and could be back for the Winter Classic. Hopefully, they aren't rushing him back for this event.

- Atlanta gives up a league worst 34.6 shots per game.

- The B's have sent defenseman Andy Wozniewski back down to Providence.

- For more on the Thrashers, check out Bird Watchers Anonymous

- The game starts at 7:00 and can be seen on NESN. Open thread starts at 6:30.

Today's Obligatory Embarrassing Thrashers Fan YouTube Video