Bruins vs. Stars 1/30/22 PREVIEW

Just the Facts:

The Time: 7pm EST

The Place: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

Place to Watch: NESN, Sportsnet-1

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Opposing SBNation Blog: Defending Big D

Know Your Enemy:

• Joe Pavelski is getting some dad strength in this season, as he’s leading in points for the Stars with 48. Not too bad for a dude close to 40!
• He’s not the leading goalscorer, though. He shares that honor with Roope Hintz. Both of them have 19 goals this year. Coming up in a strong third however is Jason Robertson, who is a royal pain in the keister to play against and could be a real all-star to watch somewhere down the line.
• Miro Heiskanen has 25 points but is also a pretty good defender. Keep an eye out for him.
• Oh yeah, Tyler Seguin’s here too. He’s long since abdicated his previous throne as “good player” to Hintz and Robertson, so he’s just kinda making bank and living on the third line. There are worse ways to spend your time, I guess.
• Braden Holtby is normally the starter but uh...given what just happened to the Stars on friday night, I don’t think they’re gonna go with him. Jake Oettinger has a .910 SV%

Game Preview:

Coming off of a fairly dull game against the Coyotes that was closer than it had any right to be, the Bruins will be coming into a game against the Stars who uh...need this one. See, Dallas just got their heads popped like a rotten orange by the Caps in a 5-0 basting, and unlike the East, the Western Conference’s final wildcard spot is just a big ol’ mess: currently Calgary holds it, but is anywhere from one to two points ahead of almost five teams. A Dallas win won’t put them ahead per se, but they will be getting damn close, what with an unfortunately surging Oilers and surprisingly surging Sharks making a middle-season push.

The B’s meanwhile could see the third start for Linus Ullmark in three games, as an unforeseen injury to Tuukka Rask put him Day-to-day meant he had to sub in, and Jeremy Swayman is once again backing up the big swede. He’s definitely done well so far, so ride the hot hand while he’s here, right?

Will the B’s continue to solidify their position in the wildcard and come back to TD Garden ready to face the newest team in the league with a 2 game win streak? Tune in, and find out!