Preview: Bruins vs. Rangers 12/16/17

Just the facts

When: 5 PM

Where: TD Garden, Boston, MA

How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Blue Shirt Banter

The opponent

16-12-3, 35 points - 5th in the Metropolitan Division

Mats Zuccarello, 7G-18A-25PTS; Pavel Buchnevich, 11G-12A-23PTS; Mika Zibanejad, 11G-11A-22PTS

Game notes

• The Rangers are playing in the 2nd night of a back to back, with travel against a rested Bruins team. The Bruins SHOULD be able to take advantage of that, and put Thursday’s loss to the Capitals in their rear view.
• Henrik Lundqvist played last night versus the Kings, so expect Ondrej Pavelec in goal for the Rangers. Pavelec is 6-7-2 with a .912% and 2.95GAA in his career vs. Bruins. He is markedly worse on the road this year, owning a .899% and 4.23 GAA. EDIT: Lundqvist in goal per Alain Vigneault.
• The Rangers will likely be without their first line center Mika Zibanejad as he recovers from a concussion. He is arguably the driving force behind the Blue Shirts offense and leaves a large hole in their lineup.
• With Matt Beleskey off the Bruins roster, fans will miss out on any lingering bad blood from his hit that injured Derek Stepan, and resulted in him fighting Dylan McIllrath. Fun fact, none of those players play for the same teams anymore. Hockey, man.
• The Rangers have gone 6-3-1 over their last ten games prior to Friday night, but have lost their last two. The Bruins meanwhile have gone 7-3 during that span. The Bruins vs. Rangers tilts are generally great games, and this edition shouldn’t be any different!
• Expect Tuukka Rask between the pipes tonight, rested after Anton Khudobin started on Thursday.

Never Forget: