After a 5-3 defeat at the hands of the Washington Capitals last night in D.C., the Bruins return home to Boston to take on the St. Louis Blues tonight at TD Garden.
The Blues are off to an impressive 7-1-2 start. Former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jaroslak Halak has been a rock in net for St. Louis posting a 7-1-1 record to go along with a 1.53 GAA and .940 save percentage. Halak is tied with Tim Thomas for the league lead in shutouts with 3. Offensively, the Blues are lead by Matt D'Agostini and David Perron, who have potted 5 goals each.
After giving up 3 goals, Claude Julien pulled Tim Thomas to start the third period last night in favor of Tuukka Rask in a move designed to spark his team. The question now is whether or not Julien will go with Thomas or Rask tonight. The team did not hold a morning skate due to a late night flight back from Washington last night, so we will have to wait until game time.
Injury Report:
Adam McQuaid is also considered questionable after leaving last night's game with an undisclosed injury. However, the Bruins have not called anyone up from Providence and he did not skate with the injured players this morning. Both are good signs that he is ready to go tonight.
According to some reports Cam Janssen is also questionable for tonight's game after missing the last 3 games with a concussion.
Notes:
- St. Louis leads the league in goals against at a stingy 1.60 goals per game. This can be attributed to Halak's strong play and the Blues' ability to limit the amount of rubber that gets to their goalie. The Blues have held opponents to a league-best 25.7 shots per game.
- Blues defenseman Nikita Nikitin was been activated from the IR and is expected to make his NHL debut.
- While the B's took the morning off, the Blues held a full morning skate.
- Former Bruins Brad Boyes and Vladimir Sobotka are both off to slow starts for St. Louis. Boyes has a 1-3-4 stat line in 10 games with a 3.6% shooting percentage and an even +/- rating. Sobotaka has appeared in 6 games and has not recorded a point yet. He has registered one shot on goal and is a -1 on the year.
- The Blues have called up defenseman Ian Cole from Peoria.
- For more on tonight's game, check out St. Louis Game Time and be sure to wish them a happy 5th birthday.
- The game starts at 7:00 PM ET and can be seen on NESN. 98.5 The Sports Hub has the radio call.
- The Public Skate (open thread) gets underway at 6:30 PM ET