Preview: Bruins face off against the Canucks

Just the facts

When: Tonight, 6:00 PM

Where: TD Garden – Boston, MA

How to follow: NESN, TVAS, SN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Nucks Misconduct

Know your enemy

• 4-8-3, 11PTS, tied for 6th in Pacific Division
• Elias Pettersson: 15GP, 6G, 12A, 18PTS; Bo Horvat: 15GP, 13G, 4A, 17PTS; J.T. Miller: 15GP, 8G, 6A, 14PTS
• Spencer Martin: 3-1-1, 3.38 GAA, .902 save percentage; Thatcher Demko: 1-7-2, 4.01 GAA, .874 save percentage

Game notes

• The Boston Bruins are back home to close out a back-to-back weekend of games and will host the Vancouver Canucks tonight at the TD Garden.
• It’s a quick turnaround for both teams, as the Bruins and Canucks both played yesterday.
• The Bruins topped the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, last night on the road. After trailing by one score after the first period and most of the second, Patrice Bergeron added a power-play goal to tie the game. Jakub Zboril netted his first tally of the season to give the B’s the go-ahead in the third. Bergeron, with some magic from Marchand and Pastrnak, scored his second of the night with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
• With Bergeron’s two goals, he is now on a three-game point streak with three goals and one assist. Two of those goals are on the power play.
• The Canucks continue to struggle and dropped their game last evening to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2. Vancouver started strong and led 2-0 after the first on goals from Horvat and Miller (power-play goal). But the Leafs responded with three goals in 10 minutes to start the second period and held onto the one-goal lead to close out the game.
• This is the first of two meetings between the two teams this season. The Bruins won’t see Vancouver again until Feb. 23, 2023.
• The Bruins went 1-0-1 against the Canucks last season. They beat Vancouver 3-2 on November 28, 2021 and lost 2-1 in overtime on December 8, 2021.
• The Canucks haven’t had the best start to the season. Their longest win streak stood at two games.
• For the Canucks, Elias Pettersson has two goals and seven assists for nine points in his last six games. Quinn Hughes is also on a nine-game point streak with 12 assists. Six of those points have come on the power play. He’s registered at least a point in 10 of 11 games this season.
• The Bruins’ penalty kill has been spot on. The B’s have the top PK in the league at 94.4%. They have not allowed a goal on the PK in the last three games. The Canucks have the worst at 61.2%.
• Keith Kinkaid got the nod in net last night and his first win in his season debut. He made 30 saves. Head Coach Jim Montgomery initially said his goaltenders would split the back-to-back. With that in mind, we are likely to see Linus Ullmark tonight (unconfirmed of course). Ullmark will try to continue his perfect home streak. He’s now 6-0-0 at home.
• Charlie McAvoy also played against the Sabres last night. His TOI increased by 2:37 from Thursday. Originally, Montgomery said McAvoy was likely to only play one of this weekend’s game, but it seems that has now changed and he’s projected to also be in tonight.

See ya tonight!