The Boston Bruins look to get back to their winning ways this week with three games ahead of them.
Boston concludes its home-and-home with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday before welcoming the St. Louis Blues to TD Garden for a Stanley Cup rematch. The Black and Gold close out their week on the road against a 2-4-0 New York Rangers team.
The Bruins are coming off two heartbreaking losses against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Maple Leafs, but have the chance to bounce back and end the losing streak at two. They will, however, need to do it without David Krejci and Joakim Nordstrom for at least the first game this week.
Krejci suffered an upper-body injury against Tampa Bay and did not practice Monday. Nordstrom, meanwhile, practiced in a non-contact jersey but isn’t expected to play Tuesday night.
Let’s take a look at what’s on deck for the Bruins.
Tuesday, Oct. 22 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, Oct. 26 vs. St. Louis Blues, 7 p.m. ET
Sunday, Oct. 27 at New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET
What You Need To Know
The Bruins’ secondary scoring finally showed up in the overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on Saturday with Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk accounting for two of the team’s three goals. Toronto will be on the tail end of back-to-back to games (going to overtime Monday night) and Boston likely will be better prepared for Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews this time around. Patrice Bergeron, who already has six assists through the team’s first eight games, needs just two more helpers to reach 500 for his career.
The Blues are 4-2-3 to begin their Cup defense. Boston will be hungry for revenge in the teams’ first meeting since Game 7, and St. Louis will have a tall task in defending the top line of David Pastrnak (who leads the NHL with nine goals), Brad Marchand and Bergeron, who already are on a historic point pace.
Jake Allen (1-1-0) and Jordan Binnington (3-1-0) also haven’t been a strong tandem so far in 2019, giving up a combined 29 goals through their first eight games.
The Rangers sit in eighth place in the Metropolitan Division after opening the season with two wins. New York then dropped its next four games and struggled to find the back of the net during that stretch, scoring seven total goals in the four-game skid. The B’s struggled against the Rangers last season, though, going 1-2, but New York has been a disaster of late. The penalty kill and power play seem lifeless (ranked 28th and 27th, respectively, since Oct. 12) and Chris Kreider basically is invisible.
Who Bruins Need To Watch Out For
Marner continued to be a Bruins killer with his two assists, bringing his point total to 19 (five goals, 14 assists) in 13 games against Boston. Morgan Reilly also should be on Boston’s radar after his two-goal performance Saturday.
Brayden Schenn has been a force for St. Louis, leading the team with six goals while amassing nine points in as many games. The Blues can’t just depend on Schenn to find twine and will need help all around if they want to win. Vladimir Tarasenko (three goals, seven assists) and Ryan O’Reilly (one goal, six assists) have been able to feed pucks to their teammates for the goal, so the B’s defense will need to be able to keep up with the duo.
Kaapo Kakko hasn’t exactly taken off the way the Rangers have hoped. The prized rookie has just one goal in the first six games, and the team looks as if it hasn’t quite figured out how to grow his game while utilizing his talent. It will be interesting to see how Dan Quinn handles the Bruins, who certainly will pose a tough test for his young Rangers team.
