Boston Bruins Battle the Blues

Feb 6, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing

(74) battles Boston Bruins defenseman

(27) for the puck during the second period at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

“They’ve got some guys that have scored some pretty big goals for them, and some guys that are having some pretty good years. This will be a good test.”-Claude Julien on the St. Louis Blues

The Boston Bruins are a team that has gone up and down all season long. They were criticized and critiqued early on in the season because of their rocky start and less than mediocre performance. Then they were praised for the way that they were handling the injury plagued roster and adapting to playing without the big presence of Zdeno Chara. However, now they are back in the hot seat and fans and reporters alike are once again calling them out for all of their faults following a painful two-game road trip to Canada where they were outscored 11-2.

More from Bruins News

• Bruins release Prospects Challenge roster, schedule Tuesday
• Bruins bringing back familiar forward on tryout contract
• The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
• NHL Network lists Ullmark as sixth-best goalie in the league
• The Lasting Legacy of David Krejci

The Bruins returned to the Garden on Saturday where they took on the Carolina Hurricanes in a matinee game and were able to pull of a decent 2-1 victory, despite the ‘Canes scoring first. The bruins showed a lot of promise in Saturday’s game, with a full effort coming from all areas. Patrice Bergeron finally got back to his style of play, he won over half of his face offs and contributed to the Bruins win, scoring the game-winning goal and earning himself the second star of the game.

While the PBR line seems to have finally gotten things under control and are generating some good goal scoring opportunities, they are going to have to do so tonight without Brad Marchand. Marchand, who left Saturday’s game early and was missing from practice yesterday. While he participated in the team’s practice today, he was rotating in with Matt Fraser and it was later deemed that he would sit out tonight. Per Claude Julien Marchand is not doing well.

Live Feed

Puck Prose

David Krejci and Kevan Miller are both expected to be game-time decisions, though Krejci skated alongside his line mates in practice today and didn’t appear to have any hiccups along the way.  Upon the conclusion of practice Julien deemed that there would be a call-up if Krejci can not play tonight. As for Miller, he is suiting up as one of the seven defensemen who will be ready for tonight and they will go from there.

Tuukka Rask was the first goalie off of the ice, indicating that he will be getting the starting role in between the pipes tonight, fresh off of the 2-1 victory Saturday. Rask will look to improve his 2.56 goals against average and .908 save percentage and help boost his teams record to 12-8-0.

The Bruins are going to have a tough game ahead of them as the St. Louis Blues are 9-1-0 in their last ten games and have a power play that is ranked 2nd in the League. Tonight’s match up should be a good test to see just how well the youngsters are handling the work load of playing at the NHL level in the absence of their bruised brothers.