Preview: Banged-up Bruins head to Vancouver to face the Canucks

Just the facts

When: Tonight, 9 PM

Where: Rogers Arena - Vancouver, BC

How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Nucks Misconduct

Know your enemy

• 9-15-2, 20 points, last place in the Pacific Division
• JT Miller: 9G-16A-25PTS; Quinn Hughes: 2G-18A-20PTS; Connor Garland: 8G-11A-19PTS; Bo Horvat: 7G-7A-14PTS
• Thatcher Demko: 9-11-1, 2.82 GAA, .912 save percentage

Game notes

• The Canucks earned their first win of the post-Green/Benning Era on Monday night, beating the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 4-0. It was Bruce Boudreau’s first game behind the bench.
• The Bruins, as you are likely aware, are a bit banged up at this point. Tomas Nosek isn’t traveling with the team, nor is Jakub Zboril, who will be reevaluated in a couple weeks following his knee injury.
• Also not with the B’s for the entire trip: head coach Bruce Cassidy, who will remain home on the NHL’s COVID-19 list.
• On the “good news” front, some of the guys who missed practice this week will be traveling to western Canada, including Charlie McAvoy, Charlie Coyle, Matt Grzelcyk, and Linus Ullmark.
• To dampen that good news, the fact that they’re traveling doesn’t necessarily mean they’re playing tonight — non-COVID illness could mean plenty of different things, so it remains to be seen how much energy each of these guys has.
• Brad Marchand WILL, in fact, return, so that’s good news. I’m not sure the Canucks and their fans see it that way, but who cares what they think?
• Anton Blidh is ready to go again as well, and he’ll almost certainly draw in with Nosek out. He had played some effective hockey on the fourth line prior to his injury.
• Oskar Steen is back with the B’s as well, and if we somehow see Blidh and Steen on the same line at some point, I am calling a Jack Edwards “Swedish OOMPH” right now.

See ya tonight!