Preview: Bruins get right back at it with a trip to face the Oilers

Just the facts

When: Tonight, 9 PM

Where: Rogers Place - Edmonton, AB

How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Copper n’ Blue

Know your enemy

• 16-8-0, 32 points, 3rd in the Pacific Division
• Leon Draisaitl: 21G-22A-43PTS; Connor McDavid: 16G-27A-43PTS; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: 2G-21A-23PTS
• Mikko Koskinen: 12-4-0, 3.04 GAA, .907 save percentage

Game notes

• Apologies for the lack of recap and lines yesterday — I’m still recovering from a nasty cold so I missed all of last night’s game, and we’re a bit short-staffed at the moment. We’ll keep plugging along. As a side note, if you’re interested in sharing your takes as a Chowder writer, let me know.
• As you probably remember, these two teams already met once this season, a 5-3 Edmonton win at the Garden a little more than a month ago.
• The Bruins played last night (you know this), while Edmonton’s last game was a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. Always makes sense to have the team that played the night before do the traveling. Ah, NHL scheduling...
• That Minnesota loss was part of three consecutive losses for the Oilers, who have been outscored 13-5 in that span.
• It’s remarkable to see a 20-point gap between a team’s second-best and third-best scorer, but that just illustrates how ridiculous Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid are - RNH is having a fine season, but still finds himself miles behind those guys. Good luck to the Bruins defense!
• Speaking of defense, something to keep an eye on: it’s the second game of back-to-back games, and Charlie McAvoy played just over 28 minutes in last night’s shootout loss in Vancouver. Considering he missed time earlier this week with a non-COVID illness, it’s fair to wonder how much gas he’ll have in the tank tonight.
• It’s also fair to wonder if the Bruins shuffle their lines from the jump tonight, as Joe Sacco demoted Taylor Hall/promoted Erik Haula (depending on how you want to look at it) against Vancouver. Sacco did note that it wasn’t all on Hall, that the entire second line was having a rough night, and that he just wanted to try to get them going.
• Mikko Koskinen started the Oilers’ loss to the Wild, and Mike Smith is on long-term IR. Given the rest day, it makes sense to assume Koskinen will go tonight. If not, the Bruins will see Stuart Skinner, a rookie who was a third-round pick by the Oilers back in 2017.
• We haven’t heard otherwise, so assume Linus Ullmark will be in net for the Bruins. Jeremy Swayman was excellent last night, but it probably makes sense to give him the night off after facing so much rubber.