What is the story about?
Just the facts
- When: Tonight, 7 PM
- Where: TD Garden – Boston, MA
- How to follow: NESN, ESPN+, 98.5 The Sports Hub
- Opposing perspective: Defending Big D
Know your enemy
- 44-18-12, 100PTS, 2nd in the Central Division
- Jason Robertson: 40G-47A-87PTS; Wyatt Johnston: 40G-38A-78PTS; Mikko Rantanen: 21G-50A-71PTS
- Jake Oettinger: 30-11-6, 2.63 GAA, .899 save percentage
Game notes
- After a rousing comeback win in Columbus on Sunday, the Bruins return to TD Garden for a single home game that precedes a four-game, make-or-break road trip.
- This is the second meeting of the season between these two teams. The first came back on January 20, when the Bruins saw a six-game winning streak come to an end via a 6-2 loss in Dallas.
- As of Monday afternoon, the Stars were one of just two teams in the NHL to have 100 points. Unfortunately for them, the other 100+ point team is also in the Central Division, with the Colorado Avalanche sitting in first place with 106 points. At this point, the Stars are pretty much locked into a first-round match-up with the Minnesota Wild, who the Bruins beat on Saturday.
- While they may be pretty comfortably in that second spot in the Central, things haven’t been going swimmingly for Dallas of late. The Stars have lost five of six (with two of those losses coming beyond regulation) and are 4-4-2 in their last ten.
- Mikko Rantanen returned to the Dallas lineup for Saturday’s win over Pittsburgh. The forward had missed 15 games for Dallas after getting injured during the Olympics. It’s worth pointing out that his 71 points, good for third-best on the team, have come in just 56 games.
- This is the last game of a four-game road trip for Dallas, who are 1-1-1 in games against the Islanders (loss), Penguins (win), and Flyers (OT loss).
- Dallas has the league’s second-best power play, converting at a rate of 28.8%. They also have the league’s second-stingiest team defense, allowing 2.69 goals per game.
- After giving Jeremy Swayman back-to-back starts over the weekend, it remains to be seen when Joonas Korpisalo will get back in the crease. After tonight, the B’s will play Thursday-Saturday-Sunday, so if Korpisalo doesn’t play tonight, I’d assume we’ll see him this weekend.
- In case you missed it, Pavel Zacha was named the NHL’s second star of the week on Monday. Zacha has 5G-2A-7PTS totals in his last three games and is just two goals away from hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his NHL career.
See
ya tonight!
