Bruins Focus: Boston Welcomes Kraken To TD Garden Before NHL All-Star Break

The Boston Bruins return home Tuesday night to welcome the NHL’s newest franchise, the Seattle Kraken, to the TD Garden for the first time.

Boston looks to bounce back from a 1-1-1 road trip that ended with an ugly 6-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, while Seattle has lost two of its last three games.

It’s the Bruins’ only game this week before they head into the NHL All-Star break.

Let’s check out the week ahead:
Tuesday, Feb. 1 vs. Seattle Kraken at 7 p.m. ET

What Bruins fans need to know
The Bruins played well against the Colorado Avalanche last week, one of the NHL’s best teams, but just couldn’t get it together against Dallas. Boston will be without Tuukka Rask until after the All-Star break as he’s dealing with some lingering effects from his offseason hip surgery. Erik Haula remains in COVID-19 protocol, but it appears Craig Smith will start on the first line and Oskar Steen will go back down to the third.

The Kraken, meanwhile, hope to have a better start to February than January that included a nine-game losing streak before finishing 4-2-0. At the end of the day, though, Seattle is just 14-26-4 at the halfway point of the season and looks to turn things around in the second half.

Who Bruins need to look out for
Jordan McCann — McCann has a four-game point streak for the Kraken that includes three goals and two assists during that stretch. Overall he has 18 goals and 10 helpers. The forward has been a force on the power play for Seattle with six goals and 10 points. He’s also +200 to score Tuesday night at DraftKings Sportsbook.

Odds
DraftKings has the Kraken as the +150 underdog against the Bruins. If you’re feeling bold, David Pastrnak is +750 to score the first goal of the game, while Patrice Bergeron is +900.