The Nashville Predators return home after a pair of eventful, high-scoring regulation losses on the road, hoping to make up some ground against another very good team in the Bruins.
While they’re not the runaway favorites for the President’s Trophy this season, the Bruins are still having a great year. They lead the Atlantic and are third in the Eastern Conference, combining a league-low 17 regulation losses with a league-high 15 overtime or shootout losses (tied with the Islanders)–they’ve extracted points from a lot of situations, instead of leaving them on the table.
February was a rough month for the Bruins, but they’ve rebounded some in March. They’ve combined good shooting luck with great goaltending–Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark continue their joint brick-wall impersonation, strongly limiting what the Bruins’ opponents can get done, whether at even strength, on the power play, or even on the penalty kill (Boston has allowed only three shorthanded goals all season).
David Pastrňák is the Bruins’ runaway star on offense, leading the team by huge margins in every category with 45 goals, 57 assists, and 102 points. First-year captain Brad Marchand is second in each, with 27 goals, 36 assists, and 63 points. He’s trailed by Charlie Coyle in goals (23) and points (55), and Charlie MacAvoy in assists (34).
James van Riemsdyk hasn’t been rewarded as much on the scoresheet, but he’s been a fantastic driver of offensive play at 5v5, at similar rates as Pastrňák. Defensively, the Bruins haven’t had any standouts, or indeed played particularly exceptional defense–they’ve been better than average, overall, but their control over the ice has been weaker than it was last year, with an anemic but talented offense to go with their good but not great shutdown abilities.
The game will air at 7PM Central on Bally Sports South and 102.5 The Game.
Statistics from naturalstattrick.com. Additional background from hockeyviz.com.