Preview: Bruins head to Ottawa

Just the facts:

Who: the Boston Bruins (34-25-6, 74 points, 3rd in Atlantic, 7th in East)
visit the Ottawa Senators (35-22-6, 76 points, 2nd in Atlantic, 6th in East)

What: The battle of the closest contemporaries to the Bruins in the East, at the moment.

Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, ON, Canada

When: 7:30 PM

How to follow: RDS, TSN5, NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN Site: Silver Seven Sens

Devils Leaders:

Points: Erik Karlsson, 56

Goals: Mark Stone, 22

Assists: Karlsson, 45

Shots: Mike Hoffman, 176

Bruins Leaders:

Brad Marchand, 29G - 38A - 67 Points

Shots: Patrice Bergeron, 235

Game Notes

• New forward Drew Stafford - he barely feels like a new acquisition after how much he's been discussed in the last five days - filled in admirably for Jimmy Hayes on the third line, netting a goal before having it disallowed (the true Bruins welcome), assisting on a third-period goal, and drawing a penalty in the waning minutes.
• In the final second of Saturday's game vs. New Jersey, defenseman Adam McQuaid suffered a scary, and fortunately minor, injury when teammate David Backes' skate caught him on the right side of his neck. The injury required 25 stitches, but was otherwise a clean surface wound without doing major damage to the underlying artery/vein. According to coach Bruce Cassidy, "so long as there aren't any adverse effects of his injury, he'll go back in for sure." Is McQuaid indeed a Sith lord, cheating death? If so, we really wish he'd will the puck into the net a bit more often.
• Tough to say given how willing Cassidy has been to swap Schaller, Beleskey and Hayes freely, but two of the three still have to sit, and this author's bet is that it's the same two as Saturday (Hayes and Beleskey). Hayes has been ineffective, and Beleskey has been less-than-healthy.
• Alexandre Burrows had two goals in his Senators debut, on 3 shots. 66.7% shooting. Better than 100% biting accuracy. He also slotted immediately onto Ottawa's first line - and, how exactly are they ahead of the B's in the standings?!
• Joking aside, the Senators just beat the Blue Jackets, who have been near the top of the East for the entire season. There's nothing to say that the B's should be taking this matchup lightly, and with other offseason acquisitions Viktor Stalberg and Jyrki Jokipakka, there's new depth in Ottawa that needs to be dealt with.

Never Forget: