After suffering a brutal 6-5 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stadium Series game on Sunday night, the Boston Bruins have had three days in Florida to get back on the ice and get the bad taste out of their mouths.
Boston will hit the ice for the final time before the Olympic break on Wednesday night in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers in what is a huge game in terms of the standings and the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Black and Gold currently hold possession of the final postseason spot and are five points clear of the next two teams. The Panthers enter the game nine points back.
Former Boston captain Brad Marchand will miss the game for Florida, and the Bruins will be missing their top two centers, Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm. As far as who was starting between the pipes for Boston, well, that was answered Wednesday morning by head coach Marco Sturm.
Bruins will start Joonas Korpisalo against Panthers
Sturm announced that he'll start Joonas Korpisalo in goal against Florida. Why is he switching up with two days off and such a big game?
"Again, just the way it turned out even before the outdoor,'' said Sturm. "Sway was really good, and I obviously wanted to give him a start in an outdoor game. This one today is a tricky one with the Olympics coming up, and he's probably thinking about that too. Korpi was playing really well. (Swayman) played three games in a row, and there is a lot more to it, and I hope he will be the right guy.''
Korpisalo was officially named to Team Finland for the Olympics on Tuesday, and it isn't guaranteed he'll see anytime there. The same could be said for Swayman with Team USA. For one night, Korpisalo will have his chance to close things out on the right note for the Black and Gold before the break.