Boston Bruins to Face the Florida Panthers Tonight.

The Boston Bruins want to capitalize off of the 1-0 win on Saturday night over the Detroit Red Wings, but will have to do so without three of their top six forwards. Besides being without both David Backes (elbow injury) and David Pastrnak (suspension) once again, it now appears they will be without Patrice Bergeron, due to an undisclosed injury.

Forward Sean Kuraly was recalled from the Providence Bruins on Tuesday morning on an emergency basis. He joined the team for the morning skate at the BB&T Center, and will be available for tonight’s game against Florida. Bergeron did not skate this morning, but it is not believed he re-aggravated the lower-body injury that forced him to miss the Bruins first three games.

With that development, the Bruins offense should resemble this tonight:

Brad Marchand–David Krejci–Danton Heinen
Matt Beleskey–Ryan Spooner–Austin Czarnik
Sean Kuraly-Riley Nash–Jimmy Hayes
Tim Schaller–Dominic Moore–Noel Acciari

The home team will be contending without some key components tonight as well. They are missing three core members of their Atlantic Division-winning squad from a year ago. Nick Bjugstad (upper-body) and Jonathan Huberdeau (lower-body) are both on injured reserved. Jussi Jokinen is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

For the Bruins, Sean Kuraly will bring size, a he is listed at 6 foot 2, 202 pounds. He was acquired in of June 2015 when his rights were traded to the Boston Bruins for goaltender Martin Jones from San Jose. In eight games for the Providence Bruins this year, he has one assist.

The Panthers are a tough team to play at home. They have a 3-1-0 home record this season and most noteworthy, have allowed only one power play goal at the BB&T Center (7/8, 87.5%). The Bruins, fortunately, are a decent road team when killing penalties, only surrendering only three goals in 22 chances, which is 9th best in the league. The road power play, however, is anemic, with only one goal in 15 attempts. That is the 29th among the 30th teams.

There will be some former Bruins playing tonight. Jaromir Jagr is expected to play his 1,639th NHL game. The will tie another former Bruin, Dave Andreychuk for sixth all-time in games played. Reilly Smith should be in the line-up tonight, while former Bruin Shawn Thornton hopes to play in his second game of the season tonight.

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