Bruins Beat: Bruins on the Road Again

The Bruins on Wednesday, began a mini two-game road trip, which has them visiting two teams back-to-back, both undefeated at press time. Florida Panthers (6-0-0), and the Carolina Hurricanes (5-0-0). The Bs were coming off their recent 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks at TD Garden on Sunday, in a game that showed a few plusses. Jake DeBrusk continued his strong play, and scored his second goal of the young season, the game-winner, after taking a tasty feed from Oskar Steen, who had been called up from Providence just prior to the Sharks game. David Pastrnak potted his second goal to go along with his three assists, his five points putting him second on the team in points, behind the streaking Brad Marchand, who is off to a great start with four goals and three assists (7 points) in Boston’s first four games. Defenseman Derek Forbort also made a good impression with a steady game, earning his first goal as a Bruin, while logging over 20 minutes of ice time versus the Sharks.

The back-to-back schedule has the Bs right back on the ice tonight (Thursday), Boston will be hosted by the Carolina Panthers (7:00pm). A tough game for sure, as the Canes are off to their best consecutive wins to start the season, in franchise history with a five-game win streak. One of the reasons for their strong start lies with the steady play in goal by former Toronto Maple Leaf goaltender, Frederik Andersen, who has posted five wins in the team’s first five games, with a 1.60 goals-against-average, and a .946 save percentage. On the offensive side, Andrei Svechnikov has notched five goal and four assists, for nine points in five games, followed closely by Sebastian Aho’s seven points in five games with four goals and three assists.

Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced that recently acquired veteran Nick Foligno has been placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Coach Bruce Cassidy stated that Craig Smith will not be on the two-game road trip due to injury, and that goaltending duties will be shared equally on the brief trip, with Linus Ullmark (2-0) playing Wednesday, and Jeremy Swayman (1-1) in net to face the Hurricanes on Thursday. Bruins fourth line forward Curtis Lazar is expected to possibly make his return to the locals’ lineup following an elbow injury.

Schedule-wise for the Bruins, they will return to Garden ice on Saturday (10/30 at 7:00pm), to host the Panthers for the second time in less than a week. Following a four-day layoff, the Bruins will host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday (11/4 at 7:00pm).

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