Just the facts
- When: Tonight, 7 PM
- Where: TD Garden – Boston, MA
- How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
- Opposing perspective: Habs Eyes on the Prize
Know your enemy
- 28-16-7, 63PTS, 3rd in the Atlantic Division
- Nick Suzuki: 16G-41A-57PTS; Lane Hutson: 9G-43A-52PTS; Cole Caufield: 26G-24A-50PTS
- Jakub Dobes: 15-5-3, 3.01 GAA, .887 save percentage
Game notes
- A Bruins-Canadiens showdown on a Saturday night! For late-January hockey, it doesn’t get much more enticing than this.
- As a reminder in case you have been purposely ignoring all news lately (I don’t blame you): if you’re going to the game tonight, it is going to be very cold in Boston. The high for today is 13º F, without the wind chill so…yeah. Maybe don’t show up in shorts, but I’m not your parent, I can’t tell you what to do.
- Standings will change drastically with plenty of hockey left to play, but the Bruins, currently sitting in the second wild card spot, are three points behind Montreal in the standings. The difference between five points back and one point back isn’t insignificant, even if it’s January.
- If you’re looking for last-minute tickets, you may want to pick a different game. Per The Athletic, interest in tonight’s game is significantly higher than usual, with some attributing it to the Heated Rivalry effect. If you’ve been living under a rock, the protagonists of that show are players on fictional Boston and Montreal hockey teams. The surge in interest is probably because both teams are decent this year and it’s a Saturday night, but a little extra publicity never hurts.
- It looks like the B’s will be wearing their road whites at home again tonight, which should make for a very visually appealing match-up. I bet the league goes back to whites at home, colors on the road in the near future.
- These two teams have split the season series thus far, with the road team winning each time. The Canadiens won the last match-up, 6-2, in a game that saw the wheels fall off for the B’s in the third period.
- The Habs lost to Buffalo last time out and are 2-2-1 in their last five games.
- Jakub Dobes, who the Bruins have yet to see during the regular season, has been great for Montreal of late. The Czech netminder is 5-0-1 in his last six starts, with Samuel Montembeault starting in the aforementioned Buffalo loss.
- Both of the prior meetings between these two teams this season featured multiple fights and a handful of scrums, so I’d imagine we see more of that tonight. Arber Xhekaj was a healthy scratch against Buffalo, but you have to think that changes tonight.
- Remember: wear a coat!
See
ya tonight!
