The Bruins will be looking to bounce back from Monday's embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight at TD Garden. The Bruins have lost 6 of their last 8 games since the Winter Classic (2-5-1), while the Blue Jackets are also struggling at the moment, having lost 4 of their last 5 contests. So, to sum things up: both teams could desperately use a win right now.
Know Your Enemy
Columbus Blue Jackets (19-24-9)
Head Coach: Ken Hitchcock
SB Nation's Left Coast Hockey Blog: The Cannon
Leading Goal Scorers:
Goaltending:
Injury Report
Notes:
- The Bruins called up Adam McQuaid on Wednesday before sending him back down to Providence later in the day to make room for Drew Larman, who made the trip up I-95 from Providence.
- Marco Sturm left practice early on Wednesday, while Byron Bitz and Steve Begin sat out.
- Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien expressed his concern with Dennis Wideman's recent play:
"He's got to have a better compete level," said Claude Julien. "That's what makes him a great player. He should easily be a top-two -- three at worst -- defenseman for us. He's not close to that right now. He knows it. We know it. He's got to pick up his game."
"We're almost 50 games in now," Julien said. "It's time to take charge of the situation and bring your intensity level up. If you want to play like a 5-6, maybe that's what you're going to get ice time-wise. It's pretty simple. We've got to do the right things for our hockey club. He needs to pick up his game. He knows it. He wants to. He's got to understand that his intensity and compete level have to be better."
"Those habits that we're talking about have to start in practice. If you let things go by in practice as not a big deal, then why do you think they'll be corrected in a game? That's part of management," said Julien. "We've got to take some of that responsibility as coaches to get those guys to perform at that level. I'm not excluding myself from that either. It's up to me to keep pushing them. I've got to find a way to get this guy to perform, because he's too good of a player for us to watch him play that way."- Quotes from Claude Julien about Dennis Wideman following Wednesday's Practice (via Boston.com)
- Ways to tell your season is not going very well: The top two news stories on your team's website are about a new donut and a children's movie about a hockey playing tooth fairy.
- Old friend Milan Jurcina is on the Blue Jackets roster.
- Toucher & Rich are supposed to be on the ice for one of the intermissions as part of Heart Health Night.
- For more on tonight's game from a Blue Jackets fan perspective, check out The Cannon.
- The puck drops at 7:00 and will air on NESN. The Public Skate open thread gets underway at 6:30.
Today's Obligatory Embarrassing Blue Jackets Fan YouTube Video
They have disabled the embed code for this video, but you can check it out by clicking HERE