It ended with a 6-2 beatdown at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks, but the Bruins’ four-game Canadian road swing was hardly a failure. Earning six of a possible eight points on the trip, and escaping what seemed like sure defeat on more than one occasion, the embattled Bruins soldiered on with the help from their minor league call-ups and find themselves back in the friendly, snowy Hub.
And for a Boston club that’s 10-0-2 in their last 12 home games, that’s a good, no, great thing.
Unlike in years past, the Bruins have established a definitive home-ice advantage this season, and come into tonight’s game with an Atlantic-best 13 wins at the Garden this year, and have a 77.8 point percentage in total this season. They’re winning games they’re supposed to win. Period.
Tonight presents the Bruins with yet another one of those games, too.
Skating against the Calgary Flames for the second time in a week -- with the duo shifting their battle to Boston’s barn this time around -- the Bruins should beat up on a Calgary team that has just 13 wins in 33 contests this year. But if they sleepwalk as hard as they did against Calgary last week, totaling nine shots on net through 40 minutes before turning it on in the third period, the second meeting between these two could present the Bruins with a classic trap game style loss.
On a positive note for the Bruins, Jarome Iginla (dislocated finger) has confirmed that he’s going to be in the lineup for the Black-and-Gold tonight.
Iginla played with the Flames for 16 NHL seasons before coming to Boston (after a quick stop in Pittsburgh), and has tallied eight goals and 19 points in 33 games this year on the Bruins’ top line with David Krejci and Milan Lucic.
The Masked Men
The Bruins will go back to Tuukka Rask despite the 26-year-old’s absolute nightmare of a game in Vancouver over the weekend. Yanked after surrendering four goals on just 23 shots, earning Rask an early hook for the first time in 2013-14, the Finnish netminder returns to the cage with a potent 10 wins and .941 save percentage in 15 home starts this year. Rask also boasts a perfect 2-0-0 record with one goal allowed on 52 shots faced by the Flames in his career.
Calgary counters with Reto Berra. It will be the 6-foot-4 Berra’s first start since last week’s loss to the Bruins, where he stopped 22 of 24 shots thrown his way. In total, the first-year pro from Switzerland has four wins and an .896 save percentage in 13 games this season.
Stats of note
- 13 of Torey Krug’s 18 points this year have come on Garden ice.
- B’s winger Milan Lucic has just two goals in his last 13 games played.
- Reilly Smith has four goals and six points in six games this month.
- Michael Cammalleri has just one goal in seven career games at TD Garden.
- Calgary forward Jiri Hudler has two goals and seven points in seven games this month.
- The Flames are 4-2-1 since captain Mark Giordano returned to the lineup.
News and notes
Boston forward Shawn Thornton will have his formal appeal with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman heard on Friday afternoon. The 36-year-old Thornton was suspended 15 games for his attack on Pittsburgh’s Brooks Orpik, and will lose nearly $85,000 in pay if the suspension is upheld. Thornton is a first-time offender and in the final year of his contract with the B’s. Buffalo forward Patrick Kaleta’s appeal was denied by Bettman earlier this season.
Fourth line forward Danny Paille will continue to sit as he deals with concussion-like symptoms. Paille has not played since last Sunday’s win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.