Thursday Night Preview: Bruins Look To Extend Streak Against Panthers
By Erin Walsh
The Boston Bruins will play host to the Florida Panthers on Thursday at TD Garden looking to extend their point streak.
With the Boston Bruins riding the hot-hand, Florida certainly is going to struggle rolling into Boston. The Panthers have not won a game since February 25 when they defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in overtime. They have picked up some points though by extending games to overtime.
At this point, the Panthers are out of playoff contention as they sit sixth in the Atlantic Division. They probably won’t even have a chance to make the playoffs because the teams ahead of them are much better.
The last time these two teams met, the Panthers walloped the Bruins 5-0. This should be taken with a grain of salt though as this meeting was back in December when the Boston Bruins were struggling to get some secondary scoring.
The Boston Bruins are primed to take another two points and extend their point streak on Thursday. They managed to crawl back from down 2-0 against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday to win 4-3 in overtime.
Boston Bruins Projected Lines
Marchand-Bergeron-Heinen
DeBrusk-Krejci-Cehlarik
Nordstrom-Coyle-Backes
Kuraly-Acciari-Wagner
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Moore-Grzelcyk
Rask
Florida Panthers Projected Lines
Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov
Vatrano-Trocheck-Hoffman
McGinn-Sheahan-Brower
Hawryluk-Borgstrom-Hunt
Matheson-Ekblad
Yandle-Weegar
Pysyk-Brown
Luongo
Florida Panthers Players To Watch
Aleksander Barkov: 28 goals, 40 assists — 68 points.
Jonathan Huberdeau: 18 goals, 47 assists — 65 points
Mike Hoffman: 30 goals, 29 assists — 59 points
Know Your Opponent
The Panthers were predicted to be one of the better teams in the Atlantic Division this season but have so far struggled to be consistent. They’re not down-right horrible, but it’s been very difficult for them to compete in the strongest division in the NHL. With Tampa, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal running the show, Florida has fallen out of the playoff picture.
Sure, the Panthers have lost five in a row but they have picked up overtime points in four out of those five games. Quite frankly, they just can’t finish.
Roberto Luongo hasn’t been very good this season, with a .898 save percentage and 3.14 goals against average, it’s safe to say he isn’t the same brick wall in net that he once was.
Don’t take this Panthers team for granted though, they can compete and surely don’t lack any elite talent with guys like Barkov and Hoffman in the lineup.