The Boston Bruins are back in action Tuesday night, taking on a shorthanded New Jersey Devils team.
The Bruins are off to a perfect 2-0-0 start to 2022, with wins over the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings. The Devils are also undefeated since returning from the holiday break, with three wins since they returned on Dec. 29, including OT wins over the Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oilers.
The two teams met previously in November, where Boston pulled out a convincing 5-2 win. New Jersey boasts a record of 13-15-5 entering tonight while the Bruins are 16-10-2.
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
TV: NESN
Stream: ESPN+
"Bruins projected linesMarchand-Bergeron-SmithHall-Haula-PastrnakFoligno-Coyle-SteenFrederic-Nosek-Lazar Grzelcyk-McAvoyReilly-CarloForbort-Clifton UllmarkSwayman"
"Devils projected linesTatar-Hughes-BrattJohnsson-Mercer-HoltzKuokkanen-Boqvist-StudenicFoote-McLeod-Bastian Graves-SubbanSiegenthaler-SeversonSmith-Jaros BlackwoodGillies"
The new top-six remains the same for Boston, as it should. This past weekend saw nine different Bruins score and 14 different Bruins record at least a point. Splitting up that top line seems to have allowed the Bruins to spread the wealth.
Jake DeBrusk is out tonight after entering COVID protocols. Oskar Steen gets a stay in the lineup and will play on the third line. The young Swede has looked excellent so far in the NHL, with three points spanning over four games this season. He needs to be in more games.
New Jersey is going to be extremely shorthanded tonight, with a number of key players out.
- Nico Hischier out with lower-body injury
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 4, 2022
-Dougie Hamilton (broken jaw) will have surgery Wednesday
- Jonathan Bernier out for season after hip surgery
- Yegor Sharangovich and Pavel Zacha have entered COVID-19 protocols
- Egads https://t.co/12SNLgINf1
Some real tough blows to this Devils team. Top defenseman Dougie Hamilton took a shot off the jaw on Sunday against Washington and left the game. The timeline for his absence is unknown, but that’s a big loss for the Devils’ blue line.
As for the forward group, three of the top-six Devil forwards are out, with Pavel Zacha and Yegor Sharangovich in COVID protocols and Nico Hischier suffering a lower-body injury.
The Bruins are already a better team than New Jersey when all healthy, and now with all the injuries/absences due to COVID, there is no reason Boston lets this game slip away.
Build off of this weekend and get an extended winning streak going with a win tonight.