The Boston Bruins have headed out west to Canada to begin a three-game road trip against the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.
It starts on Wednesday with the Bruins squaring off with the Canucks for the second time this season. The two met back on Nov. 28, with the Bruins managing to come away with a 3-2 win thanks to two power plays goals in the third period.
Boston has gained some players back since their last games, the 3-2 OT loss to Tampa Bay, but are also without some players for the road trip.
When: 9 p.m. ET
Where: Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia
TV: NESN
Stream: ESPN+
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"Canucks projected linesPearson-Horvat-HöglanderPodkolzin-Pettersson-GarlandDickinson-Miller-BoeserMotte-Lammikko-Chiasson Hughes-HamonicHunt-MyersSchenn-Poolman DemkoHalak"
Boston gets star forward Brad Marchand back after he served a three-game suspension for slew-footing Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the Vancouver game. He slides back in on the top line.
Oskar Steen gets back into the lineup for his third game this season with Boston. He was called up ahead of the game against the Lightning, but did not play. He has two assists in two games in the NHL.
Both Jakub Zboril and Tomas Nosek did not make the trip. Zboril is dealing with an upper-body injury, while Nosek is battling a non-COVID illness. Bruce Cassidy also did not make the trip, so it is again Joe Sacco as the acting bench boss for now.
I was surprised to see Jack Ahcan not getting another crack after a really solid season debut last Saturday. I imagine we will see him in one of these games on the road trip, but the game in Vancouver seemed to make the most sense out of the three for him to see action.
The Bruins aren’t the only team in this matchup with turnover. Since the last time these two squads met, the Canucks fired their GM Jim Benning and head coach Travis Greene. Bruce Boudreau has taken Greene’s place on the bench.
Vancouver is still a bottom-tier team but it was be interesting to see how they play with Boudreau behind the bench. They won their last game against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday in Boudreau’s first game at Rogers Arena.
Their 65.5% penalty kill rate is what sticks out the most. The Bruins used that to their advantage in the last matchup. Can they do it again tonight?
It’s a big three games out in Western Canada and this one is by far the easiest. Boston needs to take care of business in B.C. tonight.