Causeway gameday! Boston Bruins present: Hockey Gone Wild

Coming off another loss plagued by weak first period play, the Boston Bruins welcome to town the Minnesota Wild.  Many people had the Wild pegged to be a contender this year, but they are floundering a bit like the Bruins.

If anyone else knows what the Boston Bruins are going through regarding injuries, it’s the Minnesota Wild.  The Wild have been without star forward Zach Parise all season due to a back injury.  Young budding stars like Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, and Nino Niederreiter have all missed time due to various injuries.

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The Bruins (5-4-3, 13 points) and the Wild (5-5-2, 12 points) are both struggling to gather any momentum that will help them climb the standings.  Minnesota has only won back-to-back games once; the Bruins are yet to do so.  The Bruins did have a six game point streak snapped on Sunday against the Capitals.  But in those 6 games there was an absolute collapse against Buffalo, and game in Columbus where the team failed to show up for the first 30 minutes of the game.

Schedule

The game takes place tonight at the always raucous TD Garden in Boston, MA.  Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm.  The game can be viewed on NESN, or for the audiophiles among us, on 98.5 The Sports Hub.

What to watch for

Yep, your eyes are not deceiving you.  Brad Marchand’s name is not on the pregame lines.  Unfortunately for the Bruin, Marchand is just the latest player to be bitten by the injury bug.  He apparently suffered an upper body injury, and will not play tonight.  David Krejci continues to be out for tonight and the rest of the week with his back injury.

You will also notice that Rob O’Gara is slotting in on the 3rd defensive pairing with Kevan Miller, replacing Paul Postma after his recall from Providence.  I didn’t see any injury news on Postma, so perhaps this is intended to be a shot in the arm of a defense that was Swiss cheese on Saturday against the Capitals.

Next: Bruins bloodied by Caps

It is possible that Khudobin will suit up as the back-up tonight, coming off his injury.  However, if the starting goalie match-up features Tuukka Rask and Devan Dubnyk, expect a low-scoring affair.  Both goalies are off to arguably their worst starts in recent history.  Dubnyk was a legitimate candidate for both the Vezina and the Hart Trophy after last year’s performance.