The Bruins are back in action Saturday in Vancouver after a three-day break, and it might be a good thing they had a few extra days to prepare for the Canucks.
Vancouver comes into the only meeting of the year between the clubs with the best record in the NHL at 39-14-9, and the Canucks are even more dominant at home with a 22-5-5 mark at Rogers Arena. But the Bruins do have Tim Thomas on their side, and he's been the Canucks' kryptonite in prior meetings.
Thomas has shut out Vancouver in his only two career starts against the Canucks, stopping all 70 shots he faced in those two games. Thomas will get the chance to keep that shutout streak intact on Saturday as he was the first Bruins goalie off the ice at the morning skate, traditionally the indication of who will start that night.
Roberto Luongo is expected to get the start for Vancouver. He's 28-11-7 with a 2.27 GAA and a .920 save percentage this season. Luongo, who spent the first six seasons of his career in the East with the Islanders and Panthers, doesn't quite have Thomas' perfect numbers against the Bruins, but he has had plenty of success. He's 11-9-3 with a 2.41 GAA, .929 save percentage and four shutouts against Boston.
Luongo will have to content with Bruins forward Brad Marchand in this one. Marchand left practice early on Friday when hit in the foot with a shot, but participated fully in Saturday's morning skate and should be fine for the game. That's good news for the Bruins, as Marchand has three goals in his last two games and 19-15-34 totals and a plus-24 rating in 57 games this season.
The Bruins still need to scratch one player up front and one defenseman. Daniel Paille will likely sit out again, and rookie Steven Kampfer could be the odd man out on the blue line for a second straight game.
Forward Jeff Tambellini is expected to be the only healthy scratch for Vancouver, which remains without injured defensemen Kevin Bieksa (foot), Andrew Alberts (wrist), Alex Edler (back) and Lee Sweatt (foot).
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
Rich Peverley-Chris Kelly-Michael Ryder
Greg Campbell-Tyler Seguin-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Tomas Kaberle-Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Daniel Paille, Steven Kampfer
Projected Canucks lines
Forwards
Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Alexandre Burrows
Mason Raymond-Ryan Kesler-Mikael Samuelsson
Raffi Torres-Manny Malholtra-Jannik Hansen
Tanner Glass-Cody Hodgson-Victor Oreskovich
Defense
Dan Hamhuis-Christian Ehrhoff
Keith Ballard-Sami Salo
Aaron Rome-Chris Tanev
Goalies
Roberto Luongo
Cory Schneider
Scratches: Kevin Bieksa (foot), Jeff Tambellini
