The Boston Bruins have shown improvement on the road since the beginning of January, with a 4-1-1 mark in their last six games away from TD Garden. They will have a chance to build on that success Friday night against the Vancouver Canucks, as the B’s begin a season-long five-game road trip.
Tuukka Rask is expected to start in net for the Bruins. He has a .941 save percentage in four appearance this month, including a 20-save performance in relief of backup goalie Niklas Svedberg on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars. In fact, Rask is 8-3-3 with a .945 save percentage in his last 14 starts.
Ryan Miller likely will oppose Rask in the Vancouver net. Miller signed with the Canucks on a three-year free-agent contract in the summer and owns a 25-14-1 record with a .913 save percentage this season. He has struggled in February, though, posting a 1-3-0 record and an .877 save percentage. He went 1-1-0 in two starts against Boston last season as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.
We likely won’t see any changes to the Bruins’ lines and pairings to begin Friday’s matchup, but head coach Claude Julien has mixed up his right wing positions quite a bit over the last two weeks.
Here are the projected lines and pairings for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (28-19-7, fourth in Atlantic)
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Craig Cunningham
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
VANCOUVER CANUCKS (30-20-3, third in Pacific)
Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Radim Vrbata
Chris Higgins-Linden Vey-Alexandre Burrows
Derek Dorsett-Shawn Matthias-Zack Kassian
Ronalds Kenins-Bo Horvat-Jannik Hansen
Alexander Edler-Christopher Tanev
Dan Hamhuis-Luca Sbisa
Ryan Stanton-Adam Clendening
Ryan Miller
Thumbnail photo via Kevin Hoffman/USA TODAY Sports Images
