About the Bruins - 01-10-11
A preview of the Bruins.
When and where: 7:30 p.m., Consol Energy Center.
TV: Versus, TSN2, RIS.
Record: 21-12-7, 49 points. The Bruins are in third place in the Eastern Conference and first place in the Northeast Division.
Leading Scorer: Milan Lucic (right), 28 points (16 goals, 12 assists).
Last Game: 3-2 overtime road loss, Saturday. Patrice Bergeron scored two goals for the Bruins.
Last Game against the Penguins: 7-4 road win, Nov. 10. Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists for the Penguins.
Bruins Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Marc Savard. He has 43 career points in 33 games against the Penguins. Plus, considering this will be his first game against the Penguins since he was injured March 7, 2010 at Mellon Arena, something tells us he'll have some extra motivation.
Ex-Penguins on the Bruins: Andrew Ference, D; Mark Recchi, RW.
Ex-Bruins on the Penguins: Tom Fitzgerald, assistant to the general manager; Andre Savard, professional scout; Kevin Stevens, professional scout.
Useless Bruins Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Three members of the Hockey Hall of Fame played for each the Penguins and Bruins: Leo Boivin, Paul Coffey and Joe Mullen.
Best Bruins Video We Could Find: Never date within the division:
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Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (18-10-2, 2.29 GAA, .919 SV%) for the Penguins and Tim Thomas (18-4-6, 1.84 GAA, .944 SV%) for the Penguins.
Injuries: Injuries: For the Penguins, forwards Chris Conner (illness), Evgeni Malkin (illness) and defenseman Brooks Orpik (illness) are questionable. Forwards Sidney Crosby (head) and Eric Godard (nose) are out. Forward Mike Comrie (hip) and defenseman Alex Grant (wrist) are on injured reserve. For the Bruins, forward Nathan Horton (undisclosed) is day to day. Defenseman Mark Stuart (finger) is on injured reserve.
Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins did not practice with a full crew yesterday. Their primary lines against the Wild Saturday were:
Chris Kunitz - Mark Letestu - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Evgeni Malkin
Chris Conner - Maxime Talbot - Tyler Kennedy
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Arron Asham
Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Alex Goligoski - Ben Lovejoy
The Bruins' primary lines and defensive pairings against the Canadiens Saturday were:
Milan Lucic - Marc Savard - Michael Ryder
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler - David Krejci - Tyler Seguin
Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara - Steven Kampfer
Dennis Seidenberg- Johnny Boychuk
Andrew Ference - Adam McQuaid
Notes:
-With Crosby in the lineup, the Penguins have scored 3.29 goals per game. Without him, only 0.50.
-The Penguins might re-unite the line of Matt Cooke, Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Staal.
-Talbot has 49 career goals, 49 career assists and 98 career points.
-Martin has 149 career assists.
-Kennedy has 97 career points.
-With Stuart going on injured reserve, the Bruins recalled defenseman Matt Bartkowski (right), a native of Pittsburgh, from Providence of the AHL. He has never played in a regular season NHL game.
-Wheeler has 99 career points.
-Bergeron has 198 career assists.
-Ference has 148 career points.
-Thornton has 49 career points.
-Our live blog begins at approximately 6:30 p.m. Please tune in.
(Photos: Elsa/Getty Images)