The Bruins will look to avoid a letdown after Monday’s win over the first-place Penguins in Pittsburgh as they head on to Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Playing the back end of back-to-back games can be tough to get up for, as the Bruins found out the last time they played Winnipeg. One night after a shootout loss to Detroit, the Bruins came out sluggish and fell behind the Jets 2-0 before rallying for a 4-2 win.
That game was at the TD Garden. Tuesday’s will be in Winnipeg, as the Bruins make their first trip to Manitoba since Dec. 31, 1995. There’s more at stake than just a historic return. The Bruins, who are 14-0-1 since the start of November, can move past Pittsburgh and into the top spot in the East with another win.
Having played Monday night, the Bruins did not hold a morning skate on Tuesday. Tuukka Rask is expected to start in goal after Tim Thomas got the nod on Monday and made a season-high 45 saves in the 3-1 win.
The Bruins are not expected to make any other lineup changes, with Jordan Caron and Steven Kampfer remaining the healthy scratches.
The Jets are more banged up, especially on defense. Tobias Enstrom (broken collarbone), Derek Meech (knee), Randy Jones (foot) and Ron Hainsey (lower body) are all on injured reserve, pressing Mark Flood (21 career games) and Arturs Kulda (14 career games) into service. The Bruins took advantage of an inexperienced Pittsburgh defense ravaged by injuries on Monday, and will look to do the same Tuesday in Winnipeg.
The Jets will also likely be without forwards Nik Antropov (lower body) and Eric Fehr (undisclosed), who have each missed the last two games and remain day to day. Carl Klingberg (3 career games) has stepped into the lineup for those last two games.
Winnipeg did activate defenseman Brett Festerling (upper body) from injured reserve on Tuesday, but assigned him to their AHL affiliate in St. John’s.
Dan O’Rourke and Brian Pochmara will be the referees, with David Brisebois and Thor Nelson working the lines.
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Rich Peverley
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas
Scratches: Jordan Caron, Steven Kampfer
Projected Jets lines
Forwards
Andrew Ladd- Alexander Burmistrov-Kyle Wellwood
Evander Kane-Bryan Little-Blake Wheeler
Tanner Glass-Jim Slater-Chris Thorburn
Jason Jaffray-Tim Stapleton-Carl Klingberg
Defense
Johnny Oduya-Dustin Byfuglien
Mark Stuart-Zach Bogosian
Arturs Kulda-Mark Flood
Goalies
Ondrej Pavelec
Chris Mason
Scratches: Nik Antropov (lower body), Eric Fehr
