The Boston Bruins will look to improve upon their poor effort in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames when they host the Vancouver Canucks – the only team with a better record in the league – on Thursday.
BOSTON – The Boston Bruins are set to host the league-leading Vancouver Canucks at TD Garden on Thursday. After putting out arguably their worst showing of the season against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, the Bruins are prepared to bring their best against a stronger opponent.
“Fun team to watch,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of the Canucks. “In the sense that they play the right way offensively and defensively. They protect the good areas of ice, they attack the good areas of ice. They’re very dangerous off the rush.”
The Bruins will be without rookie Matt Poitras on Thursday and the rest of the season after the 19-year-old forward underwent shoulder surgery on Wednesday. Poitras finishes the season with five goals and 15 points in 33 games. He’s expected to be sidelined for five months.
“Everyone was on the same page that this is what would be best for him moving forward since he’s 19,” Montgomery said. “He’s going to have a full summer to get prepared for next year. If we waited, then the summer gets compromised.”
Bruins captain Brad Marchand was also absent from Thursday’s morning skate, but simply for maintenance. He will be in the lineup on Thursday.
With Marchand (maintenance) not participating, this is how the Bruins lined up during morning skate:
James van Riemsdyk - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - Charlie Coyle - Trent Frederic
Danton Heinen - Morgan Geekie - Oskar Steen
Jakub Lauko - Jesper Boqvist - Kevin Shattenkirk
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Parker Wotherspoon
Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman
Since Marchand will play, Frederic and Steen will likely each move down one spot on the right wing, and DeBrusk would flip to the right side of his line with Coyle to make room for Marchand on the left. Shattenkirk will be scratched with Wotherspoon taking his spot on the third defensive pair.
“It’s a good chance for us to bounce back,” said Wotherspoon, who grew up rooting for the Canucks in Surrey, B.C. “Obviously it’s a good opponent, so I think if we just come ready, we should be good.”
Five Things to Know About the Canucks
- The Canucks have the best record in the NHL (34-11-5, 73 points) and are the only team ahead of the Bruins (31-10-9, 71 points) in the league standings.
- Vancouver has the highest scoring offense (3.78 goals per game) and second-lowest scoring defense (2.54 goals allowed per game) in the NHL.
- Quinn Hughes leads all NHL defensemen with 64 points (12 goals, 52 assists). He’s currently on a three-game multi-point streak and leads Vancouver with 10 assists and 11 points over the past five games.
- Goalie Thatcher Demko ranks sixth in the NHL in both save percentage (.920) and goals against average (2.43, tied for 6th).
- Vancouver boasts three of the top 10 scorers in the NHL: JT Miller (68, tied for 4th), Elias Pettersson (65, tied for 9th) and Quinn Hughes (64, 10th).
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