Bruins at Avalanche
There does not figure to be any shortage of offense when the Boston Bruins kick off a four-game road trip at the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night. Boston has the NHL's top goal scorer in red-hot David Pastrnak while Colorado's Mikko Rantanen leads the league in overall scoring, and through Monday's games the teams featured the top four point-getters.
Pastrnak admitted to some lofty aspirations after he was named the NHL's First Star of the Week, scoring five times in four games to boost his season total to 16 goals in 17 games. "I would obviously love to hit 50 goals at some point in my career. It’s just a question of work," Pastrnak told reporters. “It’s my strength, you know? That’s what kind of player I am. I’m here to score goals. That’s how I help the team." Colorado ended a five-game slide (0-4-1) with a 4-1 win at Edmonton on Sunday as Rantanen scored one goal and set up another while Nathan MacKinnon collected a pair of assists. The Avalanche have won the past three meetings between the teams and outscored the Bruins 10-3 in a two-game series sweep last season.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, NESN (Boston), Altitude (Colorado)
ABOUT THE BRUINS (10-5-2): Goaltender Tuukka Rask rejoined the team following a leave of absence that caused him to miss two games, but Jaroslav Halak will make his fourth consecutive start for Boston. Rask admitted he has been outplayed by Halak, who bounced back from a rocky performance against Vancouver to limit Toronto and Vegas to one goal apiece. "We knew he’d be solid. He’s certainly exceeded expectations, and it’s what is required right now,” coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters. “He’s getting lots of starts, guys are confident in front of him and we’re starting to understand how he is."
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (8-6-3): Semyon Varlamov will be in net after giving Colorado a big lift with his 26-save performance in Edmonton that also halted a personal five-start losing streak. Tyson Barrie hit a pair of milestones against the Oilers, scoring his 62nd goal to tie Rob Blake for third among defensemen on the franchise's all-time list and notching an assist for the 200th of his career. "That one is cool because Blakey was my favorite defenseman growing up, and I wore No. 4 because of him," Barrie told reporters. "I ended up playing for Colorado, so fairy book ending for me."
OVERTIME
1. Pastrnak has two goals and an assist in six career games versus Colorado.
2. Rantanen has been limited to two assists in five games against Boston.
3. Bruins C Patrice Bergeron has two goals and four assists during a four-game point streak.