Avalanche at Bruins
Frank Vatrano grew up watching the Bruins some 90 miles from Boston in his hometown of East Longmeadow, Mass., and the 21-year-old wears the spoked B home sweater for the first time when the Bruins host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. Vatrano, who played one full year at the University of Massachusetts and 15 games over two seasons with Providence of the American Hockey League, scored Saturday in his first NHL contest - a 4-2 loss in Montreal.
“He doesn’t seem nervous - he seems confident and he seems determined,” Boston coach Claude Julien told reporters about the 5-9, 201-pounder who is playing wing on a line with Loui Eriksson centered by David Krejci. The Bruins snapped a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory at the New York Islanders on Sunday and play their next five at TD Garden, where they are 1-4-1. Boston dominated Colorado 6-2 in Denver on Oct. 14 behind a goal and three assists by Jimmy Hayes after losing its first three games to start the season. The Avalanche try for their first winning streak of the campaign after kicking off their season-long seven-game road trip and a stretch where they play 14 of 18 games away from home with a 4-0 victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), NESN (Boston)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (5-9-1): Coach Patrick Roy decided to put his best three offensive players together Tuesday and it paid off as Matt Duchene scored two goals with new linemates Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon each providing an assist. "They played a really solid game," Roy told reporters. "They were dominant every shift that they were (out there). They had a lot of scoring chances. That was the reason we put them together. I like the speed of the three of them together. I feel it's tough to play against them." Center John Mitchell, who scored one goal in each of the first four games but none since and hasn't recorded an assist in 11 games, missed his fourth straight contest Tuesday with an oblique injury and remains day-to-day.
ABOUT THE BRUINS (7-6-1): Julien swapped left wingers on his first and third lines - elevating Matt Beleskey (two goals in 12 games) in an effort to ignite his offensive game by putting him next to center Patrice Bergeron with Brett Connolly on the other side. Brad Marchand joins center Ryan Spooner and Hayes on the No. 3 unit and provides a veteran presence. "No matter what’s being said out there about March, my main reasoning behind that was that he wants to be a leader and when you put him with a guy like Spooner who’s a young centerman and Haysie who’s in his first year here, it gives him that opportunity,” Julien told reporters.
OVERTIME
1. Boston D Torey Krug (undisclosed injury) and LW David Pastrnak missed practice Wednesday and while Julien was optimistic that Krug will play Thursday, Pastrnak will be out for a period of time with a small, non-displaced crack in his foot.
2. The Bruins have the top power play in the NHL at 16-for-48 but are last in penalty-killing, allowing 16 goals in 54 chances.
3. Colorado has won seven straight in Boston since a 3-3 tie Oct. 11, 1999.