The Bruins will wrap up their brief 2-game Western Conference road trip with a game against the Los Los Angeles Kings tonight at Staples Center. The Bruins are coming off of a 6-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon, while the Kings are looking to string together their first back-to-back wins of 2011 after a 4-3 win over Phoenix on Saturday.
This is the second and final meeting of the year between the Bruins and Kings. The Kings took the first meeting 4-3 in a shootout back on November 20th.
Kings Player to Watch:
The 23-year-old Slovenian centerman has registered 5 points (4-1-5) in 5 career games against the Bruins.
Kings Goaltending:
Injury Report:
Notes:
- Familiar [Sturm] face, Marco Sturm will be out of the lineup for the Kings. Sturm's knee is acting up again.
- Marc Savard did not travel with the team to LA. He went back to Boston to be evaluated by doctors today after leaving Saturday's game with a head injury. There have been no further reports on Savard's condition.
- Tim Thomas was named the NHL's 1st Star of the Week.
- The Kings have lost 10 of their last 13 games (3-10-0) and currently in last place in the Pacific Division.
- Kings GM Dean Lombardi's bank account is about $50,000 lighter these days.
- What is it with the Bruins having all these Monday night games? How am I supposed to tear it up in my Monday night beer league and cover the games. By "tear it up", I mean coast through my shifts and suck wind. Just so you know, I probably will not have a recap up until tomorrow night.
- According to Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe, the Bruins have shuffled lines for tonight's game:
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler-Tyler Seguin-Michael Ryder
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara-Steven Kampfer
Dennis Seidenberg-Johnny Boychuk
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
- It appears that Mark Stuart will be the scratch again tonight. You have to wonder if he re-aggravated his finger/hand injury. You know how forthcoming the Bruins are when it comes to injuries.
- The puck drops at 10:30 PM ET (not a chance I am staying up to watch the end of this one) and can be seen on NESN.
- The Public Skate open thread gets started at 10:00 PM ET.
- For more on tonight's game, check out Jewels From The Crown