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BRIGHTON -- They’ve been anything but masterpieces, but the Boston Bruins have rolled to three straight victories. All against Atlantic Division playoff teams from a year ago, too. But back in Boston for the first time in almost two weeks, the Bruins will be left with their toughest task to date in a Saturday night visit from a New York Rangers club that’s scored a league-best 45 goals in 11 games.
Offensive back up is on the way for the Black and Gold, though, with the return of top six forward David Backes -- who tallied two goals and four points in five games before he went under the knife with a minor elbow procedure to fix what’s been termed “liquid elbow… -- after a five-game absence.
A full participant in the morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena, Backes was noted as a “should be good… by Bruins coach Claude Julien, and is more than ready to return from his break.
With just 25 games missed due to injury in his NHL career, the 32-year-old Backes has done his best to be patient with an ailment that, well, required a lot of patience and respect for the healing process.
“You don’t want systemic infection and things like that to spread and all of sudden something that you could have squashed in 10 days, be back and not think about it again becomes a couple-month ordeal or season-ending [injury],… Backes, who noted that the injury was a lingering one before the surgery, admitted. “Who knows what happens if it gets in your bones or all those other things?…
Backes, one of just five Bruins with at least two goals scored this season, will rejoin the B’s second line on the right side, with David Krejci at center and Ryan Spooner on the left wing.
In the first leg of a back-to-back that begins with tonight’s tilt against the B’s and concludes with a home game against the Winnipeg Jets, the Rangers will give this start to backup netminder Antti Raanta. The 27-year-old Raanta is 2-0-0 with a .921 save percentage (58 saves on 63 shots against) on the year, and stopped 31-of-32 shots against in his last outing, an Oct. 30 win against Tampa Bay. Raanta has faced the B’s just once in his career, a 14-of-16 relief appearance in Feb. 2015.
Boston counters with their ace, Tuukka Rask. Still undefeated in 2016 after a 27-of-30 night -- and 9-of-10 effort in the shootout -- against the Lightning on Thursday, Rask comes into tonight’s contest with six wins and a .951 save percentage in six games played this season. The 29-year-old Rask has nine wins and a .930 save percentage in 18 career head-to-head games against New York.
- Dominic Moore, who had six goals in 80 games last year, has three goals in his last eight games.
- Torey Krug has four assists in 10 career games against the Blueshirts.
- The Bruins are 5-0-1 in their last six home games against the Rangers.
- New York is 6-0-0 in games in which Kevin Hayes records at least one point.
- Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh has nine assists in his last nine games played.
Other news and notes
Julien did not give any leads as to who the healthy scratch up front will be. With Backes back, forward Austin Czarnik took some line rushes with the third line, and Matt Beleskey was a healthy scratch in Thursday’s win. Beleskey will be a “gametime decision… according to Julien.
Joe Morrow is the expected healthy scratch on defense for the Bruins.
The Bruins lost their only meeting against the Rangers this year by a 5-2 final.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010 and has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013. Ty is also the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com and can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.