After extending the series to 6 games with an impressive 4-0 victory over the Hurricanes on Sunday night, the Bruins will head down Tobacco Road one more time and attempt to keep their season alive tonight in Raleigh.
Projected Starting Goaltenders:
Projected Lines
Injury Report
Boston
LW Marco Sturm: Out for Season (knee)
D Aaron Ward: will play (face)
D Matt Hunwick: Out for Series (spleen)
D Andrew Ference: Doubtful (lower body injury)
"I expect him to play. There was evidence of some type on incident on his orbital bone, it may have been an old fracture. He definitely had a contusion, but he'll be able to play tonight."
- Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli via Boston.com
Carolina
LW Ryan Bayda: Probable (flu-like symptoms)
Notes:
- The Bruins need to come out with the same energy that they had early in Sunday night's game to jump out to early lead and take the RBC Center crowd out of it.
- I have said all I am going to say on the Walker/Ward sucker punch incident. It was a gutless, indefensible act, but the best retaliation would be winning this series.
- I loved the Bruins forechecking game in Game 5. They need to keep that up and force the Hurricanes to make bad decisions with the puck similar to the way that the Canes' forecheck flustered the B's defensemen earlier in the series.
- The Bruins have not called up anyone from Providence and they only have 6 healthy defensemen. So all signs put to Aaron Ward playing tonight. Another good sign: Ward is on the ice for the morning skate with no eye protection.
- Luke DeCock (Is that the best porn name ever?) is stirring up trouble once again on the pages of his small market rag.
- If you are around Boston tonight, stop by McGreevy's to watch the B's game and (hopefully) see Stanley Cup of Chowder take home some hardware at the New England Sports Blog Awards. Thanks to everyone who voted. Hopefully, I will see you guys out at McGreevy's tonight.
- Game starts at 7:00 and will be carried by NESN in New England.
- Public Skate (open thread) will start at 6:00. They offered to let me blog live from McGreevy's, but I just want to enjoy the game. Behave yourselves while I am not here.
- The fat kid dancing and "Nutty" seemed to have worked last game, so if it ain't broke don't fix it. I am trying my hardest to turn this kid into the Bruins version of Geno.
Eyes on the Storms
Canes Country (SBN): Bubba and Cory do some great work over there. Their daily Hurricanes Newsstand will point you in the right direction for news and stories on this series from both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Canes Now: The News & Observer's Hurricanes blog (think Boston.com's Bruins Blog).
Tracking the Storm: Blog from Carolina Hurricanes official website. Think of it as Carolina's version of Bish's Blog.
Series Recap:
Carolina leads 3-2
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5