Bruins at Panthers
The Boston Bruins are one of several teams in the Atlantic Division trying to develop consistency, and they will meet another in the same situation when they visit the Florida Panthers on Saturday. The Bruins, who have posted just five wins in their last 15 contests, begin a four-game road trip after consecutive losses to New Jersey and Edmonton dropped them out of a playoff position.
“Obviously, we want to recognize where we’re at and what the situation is, but I think we’ve shown that we’re capable of playing good hockey against good teams, and we just have to make that a habit,” Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask told reporters. “We don’t want to be a roller-coaster team, and we have to get on a good rhythm here and get some points.” The Bruins won all three previous meetings this season and look to make it four against Florida, which edged Nashville 2-1 on Friday but saw two important players get injured. Robert Luongo (upper body) was lost in pregame warmups and center Nick Bjugstad (lower body) left the game during the first period. Florida has recorded only six wins in 18 games since Tom Rowe took over as coach but has earned 19 points in that span.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NESN (Boston), FSN Florida
ABOUT THE BRUINS (20-17-4): Coach Claude Julien lamented giveaways and breakdowns in the 4-3 home loss to Edmonton on Thursday, which occurred despite Boston's 36-25 advantage in shots. Leading scorer Brad Marchand (32 points) has recorded just one goal in his last 10 games while David Pastrnak (27) is in the midst of an eight-game goal-scoring drought that has him stuck at 19. David Krejci is heating up with six points in his last six contests and defenseman Torey Krug has been the team's most productive player of late with eight points in a seven-game span.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (17-15-8): Jonathan Marchessault took over the team lead with his 12th goal on Friday and Vincent Trocheck notched an assist – his sixth point in the last five games. Bjugstad has struggled with just one goal in 21 games, but his presence would be missed as fellow center - and the team’s leading scorer - Aleksander Barkov (lower body) also is out. James Reimer replaced Luongo (day-to-day) in net and turned aside 28 shots, allowing two goals or fewer for the fourth time in his last five starts while earning a point for the ninth time in 14 decisions (6-5-3).
OVERTIME
1. Rask is 18-3-1 with three shutouts, a 1.53 goals-against average and .949 save percentage in his career versus Florida.
2. Florida C Greg McKegg has recorded a goal in each of the last two games for his first two of the season – doubling his career total.
3. Boston RW David Backes (concussion) skated with the team on Friday and is hopeful for a return against the Panthers.