By: Zach Carlone | Follow me on Twitter @zcarlone
The Bruins put together an impressive effort against the New York Rangers on Thursday night and it resulted in a 4-0 win. Collectively, the team played well and responded to their poor performances in the two games prior. Today, the task will be to repeat that same dominant performance against a Rangers team expecting to have Artemi Panarin back in the lineup. The puck drop for today’s game is scheduled for 1 pm EST.
Hot Halak
Per head coach Bruce Cassidy, Jaroslav Halak is slated to start his third straight game with Tuukka Rask expected to miss the game due to his injury still “lingering”. Halak posted a 27-save shutout in Thursday night’s win against the Rangers and played extremely calm and controlled. He’ll look to keep it going against a Rangers team that’ll be looking for a different outcome than Thursday’s.
Following Halak’s shutout in their latest win, he has a 6-2-2 record with a 1.88 GAA and a .927%. With a smaller sample size of games played compared to Rask, those numbers would easily put him in discussions for winning the Vezina Trophy at season’s end.
Senyshyn Out
Bruins winger Zach Senyshyn, who spent most of the first half of the season with the Providence Bruins, made his season debut in Thursday night’s win. While he didn’t contribute on the scoresheet, he was very noticeable on the forecheck with his strong strides and work ethic on display in the corners.
Playing on the fourth line, Senyshyn only managed 11:46 of ice time. He still played great for a limited role, and would’ve most likely saw himself back in the lineup for today’s game. However, Senyshyn left Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury that will force him to miss some time, which is pretty unfortunate for the former first-round pick who finally seemed to find his spot on the team.
DeBrusk is Back
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy sent the message to winger Jake DeBrusk that he needed to be better. DeBrusk sat out Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, and returned to the lineup Thursday night in dramatic fashion. DeBrusk potted his second goal of the season playing most of the night with David Krejci and Nick Ritchie, and he even showed flashes of his young brilliance seemed to be long gone just a few days prior.
DeBrusk knew he had to be better, brought the heat, and made up for his losses. He earned his way back to the lineup Thursday night and will need to continue to provide the Bruins with necessary secondary scoring if they want to be successful and contend for the Stanley Cup in a few months.
Bruins Projected Lines
Ritchie – Bergeron – Pastrnak
DeBrusk – Krejci – Coyle
Bjork – Studnicka – Smith
Frederic – Kuraly – Wagner
Grzelcyk – McAvoy
Vaakanainen – Clifton
Tinordi – Zboril
Halak
Vladar
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