Preview: Bruins host Hurricanes in a Black Friday showdown

Just the facts

When: Today, 1 PM

Where: TD Garden - Boston, MA

How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Canes Country

Know your enemy

• 10-6-4, 24 points, 3rd in the Metropolitan Division
• Martin Necas: 9G-14A-23PTS; Sebastian Aho: 9G-13A-22PTS; Andrei Svechnikov: 13G-7A-20PTS
• Antti Raanta: 3-2-2, 2.53 GAA, .902 save percentage

Game notes

• The Bruins will be looking to shake off Wednesday’s defeat in Florida with some home cooking, facing the team that ended their season last year. REVENGE GAME.
• If the Bruins win today, they’ll set a new record for longest home winning streak to begin a season (12).
• Carolina has lost four games in a row, the latest a 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Coyotes. It hasn't just been four games either - the Canes have lost seven of nine, leading our friends at Canes Country to declare the team “broken.”
• Offense has been a struggle for Carolina this year, with the Canes 27th in the league with 2.70 GF/G. You can see it in their offensive leaders: Necas, Aho, and Svechnikov are the only players above 20 points, then fourth-place Brent Burns is all the way down at 13. The Canes have just four players with double-digit points, compared to ten for the Bruins.
• Goaltending hasn’t been great for Carolina either, with all of their goalies hovering around or just below the .900 save percentage mark. Frederik Andersen is on IR and Raanta didn’t start Wednesday after getting “nicked up” at the morning skate, but practiced yesterday.
• Personnel-wise, Linus Ullmark should start for the Bruins after Jeremy Swayman started and lost Wednesday night. The “Anton Stralman in, someone out” rotation on defense may continue, and it remains to be seen whether or not Trent Frederic is available. As far as I know, the Bruins didn’t recall anyone from Providence on Thursday.
• I mentioned this the other day, but I don’t understand why the league has taken some of the shine off of the Bruins’ Black Friday game. Before killing it a few years ago, the Bruins played that weird 11 AM Black Friday home game for as long as I can remember. It was always a great atmosphere, usually combined with a Celtics home game later that night. It reminded me of the Red Sox annual Patriots Day home game. For whatever reason, the league is now playing the game at 1 PM, and not putting it on national TV either. Instead, the national audience is getting treated to a Flyers-Penguins game at 5:30 PM. Just what everyone wants!
• If you are a soccer fan, you can be excused for missing a chunk of this game to watch the United States play England at 2 PM.

See ya this afternoon!