Preview: Bruins face off against Lightning tonight

Just the facts

When: Tonight, 7:00 PM

Where: TD Garden – Boston, MA

How to follow: NESN, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNP, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Raw Charge

Know your enemy

*Stats prior to their game last night*

• 12-7-1, 25PTS, 4th in Atlantic Division
• Nikita Kucherov: 20GP, 10G, 21A, 31PTS; Steven Stamkos: 20GP, 10G, 13A, 23PTS; Brayden Point: 20GP, 8G, 13A, 21PTS
• Andrei Vasilevskiy: 8-6-1, 2.94 GAA, .905 save percentage

Game notes

• The Boston Bruins are back at it against the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second time within nine days. It’s also yet again, another chance to extend their historic NHL home streak to open a season!
• After tonight, the Bruins and Lightning will meet two more times - on Jan. 26, 2023 and March 25, 2023.
• In the two’s last meeting on Nov. 21, the Bruins topped the Lightning, 5-3. After a tied first period, Nick Foligno started the second-period scoring off with a power-play goal. The Bruins would lead 4-1 by the middle frame’s end and 5-1 shortly into the third period. The Lightning added two tallies to try to close in on the gap, but the Bruins held on to win.
• That game was a big win to show the Bruins could compete with other contending NHL teams. But more importantly, it was a big game because Patrice Bergeron registered his 1,000th NHL point in it.
• The Bruins penalty kill has struggled as of late and special teams will look to tighten things up tonight. In the last six games, the B’s penalty kill is 65.6%, allowing 10 goals.
• David Pastrnak is currently on a nine-game point streak with 13 points and four-game goal streak. He has five goals in the last four games - four of which are from the power play. He is third in the league in overall points with 32 and fourth in the NHL with 14 goals.
• For the Lightning, Nicholas Paul has three goals and one assists in two games (all stats before their game last night). Kucherov has eight points since Nov. 17 on three goals and five assists. Sergachev has registered seven assists since Nov. 13.
• Injury updates: Well there was no need to make a call to Providence as Linus Ullmark was back to practice yesterday. While he’s “good to play,” that could mean to back up Jeremy Swayman, Head Coach Jim Montgomery said. Craig Smith was missing from yesterday’s practice and is still day-to-day. Trent Frederic was also at practice after missing the last two games with an upper-body injury.
• All signs are pointing that we MAY see Derek Forbort return even earlier than this weekend. Anton Stralman was placed on waivers yesterday afternoon, as Forbort’s return was going to require some player movement to free up cap space. We’ll find out later this morning if Forbort will be in the lineup.

See ya tonight!