Game preview: Boston Bruins vs. Florida Panthers

The Boston Bruins are coming off their first consecutive back-to-back wins on the season with a 3-0 blanking of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. Now 2-2-1 in the month of November, the Black and Gold look to make it three straight against the Florida Panthers Thursday night at the TD Garden.

Last season, Tim Thomas and the B's went 3-1-0 against the Panthers, while outscoring them 14-5 in their four meetings.

Well, I was out of Examiners this time around. But I did get some help from George Richards—the Panthers beat writer for the Miami Herald—for Florida's injury report and line combination's.

Home Team: Boston Bruins (8-7-2, 18 points, 3rd Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference)

Who's Hot: Patrice Bergeron lit the lamp with an empty-netter on the short-hand last game versus the Penguins—now bringing his last three game total to four points (2 goals, 2 assists, plus-3). He also has a 62% face-off winning percentage and 13 shots on goal in his last three contests.

Who's Not: Michael Ryder has now extended his point-less streak to nine games, with a minus-1 rating during that span, and an average of two shots on goal. This major slump could be the fact that Ryder has been under the weather as of late; or it could also be in part due to the Bruins injuries. David Krejci, whom Ryder had much success with last season, has been battling the H1N1 virus and not been playing up to Krejci standards. This causes a lot of line-juggling, and perhaps lack of rhythm and chemistry for No. 72. But for someone who has been itching for another 30-goal season, Ryder needs to find his own way of putting the puck in the net.

What to watch for: Through the first five games of the season, the Bruins' goaltending allowed 19 goals-against. Now, the duo of Tuukka Rask and Tim Thomas has been the lights-out through the first five games of November—allowing just seven goals during that span—and have climbed back to fifth place overall in the NHL with 39 goals-against in 17 games (2.29 GAA). With an astounding .954 save-percentage and 1.40 goals-against average for the month of November, these two look like they are gunning for another William M. Jennings Trophy this season.

Who to watch for AND Unsung Player: For the first time, I'm combining these two categories into one to express my gratitude to Derek Morris. Did you watch No. 53 on Tuesday night against the Penguins? Well if not, to put it in short, he was the best defenseman on the ice. Period. Four more blocked shots—one that was directly responsible for a turnover, which resulted in Daniel Paille's first goal of the season for the B's.

Through the first eight games of the season, Morris registered 0-3-3, seven shots on goal, and a minus-5 rating.

The last eight games: 1-5-6, 19 shots on net, and a plus-5 rating.

No. 53 has arguably been the best defenseman with a Spoked "B" this season. Morris for Norris? We shall see.

Line Combinations:

Marco Sturm—Patrice Bergeron—Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler—David Krejci—Michael Ryder
Shawn Thornton—Steve Begin—Byron Bitz
Vladimir Sobotka—Trent Whitfield—Daniel Paille

Zdeno Chara—Derek Morris
Matt Hunwick—Dennis Wideman
Andrew Ference—Mark Stuart

Tuukka Rask—Tim Thomas

Injury Report: Derek Morris missed practice yesterday recovering from flu-like symptoms. He also missed the morning skate on Tuesday, but did play in that game. Milan Lucic, on the LTIR with a broken right index finger, is still eyeing a Nov. 19 return against the Atlanta Thrashers. Marc Savard LRIT with a broken right foot.

Away Team: Florida Panthers (5-9-1, 11 points, 4th Southeast Division, 13th Eastern Conference)

Florida is 3-2 in their last five. Coming off back-to-back shutout victories over the St. Louis Blues (4-0 on Oct. 31) and Carolina Hurricanes (3-0 Nov. 3), the Panthers lost home-and-home battles to the Washington Capitals in their last two games—allowing 11 goals and 57 shots to the Alexander-Ovechkin-less Caps.

Watch for The line of Stillman (3-3-6) - Reinprecht (4-3-7) - Horton (2-4-6). The trio have now combined for 9-10-19 in their last five games, with 39 shots on net.

Who's hot: 35-year-old Cory Stillman has 3-6-9 on the season, yet 3-3-6 have come in his last four games, and 14 of his 26 shots on goal have accumulated in his last five. Steven Reinprecht: 5-3-8, plus-2, and 17 shots on goal in his last six games. The 33-year-old veteran is the team's leader in points with 13, in all 15 games played.

Who's not: Florida's goaltending in the bottom five in the NHL in goals against. Tomas Vokoun--35 goals-against in 12 games--and Scott Clemmensen--16 goals-against in four starts--have averaged 3.60 goals-against per game through 15 games this season.

Kamil Kreps: day-to-day bruised foot
Dominic Moore: nasal surgery
David Booth: IR concussion
Radek Dvorak: IR lower-body injury
Nick Tarnasky: IR broken orbital bone

Kreps, Moore, and Dvorak are all expected to play in tomorrow's game.

News and Notes:

Florida is ranked 28th in the league with a 13.1%(8-for-61) power play and 27th on the penalty-kill with 74.6% (15-for-59)
The Panthers have upgraded in their "grit" category by acquiring 6'5" 250 lb. Steve MacIntyre off of waivers from the Edmonton on Tuesday. He will be assigned to AHL Rochester when he clears.

Line Combinations:

Rostislav Olesz—Stephen Weiss—Michael Frolik
Cory Stillman—Steve Reinprecht—Nathan Horton
Gregory Campbell—Dominic Moore—Radek Dvorak
Kendall McArdle—Kamil Kreps—Victor Oreskovich

Bryan McCabe—Dennis Seidenberg
Keith Ballard—Jordan Leopold
Bryan Allen—Dmitry Kulikov

Check out beat writer George Richards at the Miami Herald for more Florida Panthers news.

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