After dropping to 0-1-1 on their road trip out to Western Canada, the Bruins will look to rebound against a young Canucks team that has impressed in the early going. Follow along for updates from Saturday’s matchup.
WHO: Bruins (4-2-1) at Canucks (4-3)
WHEN: 10 p.m. EST
WHERE: Rogers Arena, Edmonton
TV: NESN
RADIO: 98.5-FM The Sports Hub
LIVE BOX SCORE: NHL.com
TICKETS: BSJ ticket partner SeatsForEveryone.com
LIVE COVERAGE:
12:44: FINAL: Canucks 2, Bruins 1. Rough overtime there for Brandon Carlo.
12:34: Halak with a point-blank save in the final seconds, and the Bruins are going to OT for the second game in a row. Boston with a 10-3 edge in scoring chances through the final 20 minutes of regulation.
12:15: John Moore with the assist on Nordstrom's goal. That's Moore's 100th career point.
12:13: Bruins tie this one up off of Nordstrom's second goal of the season. What a snipe and a relief for the B's after tiling the ice in their favor for most of the period.
12:o7: Wagner-Nordstrom-Bjork with a relentless forecheck. These lines are all shuffled up at this point.
12:00: Third period underway.
11:43: END SECOND: Bruins still trail, 1-0. Better period for the Black and Gold, who went from two scoring chances in the opening frame to nine in the second period. Still, Boston's power play is starting to be a cause for concern. How's Torey Krug's ankle feeling these days?
11:35: Bruins now 0-for-10 on the power play this road trip.
11:34: Good stuff from Heinen and DeBrusk leads to another scoring chance, and now Boston heads back on the power play.
11:29: Donato with a great set-up for Kuraly in transition, but his backhand attempt goes wide.
11:23: Brandon Carlo has been great so far in this one. Getting involved down the other end of the ice with some slap shots from the point. Also, Acciari back on the ice after getting stitched up.
11:17: 0-for-9 on the power play this road trip. Canucks are buzzing and Nordstrom is buzzing after blocking a bomb from Boeser.
11:11: Bruins heading back to the power play after the Canucks are called for too many men.
11:05: Acciari drops the gloves with Horvat - it's his second fighting major of his career. He's going to need to get stitched up.
11:02: Second period is underway.
10:42: END FIRST: Canucks lead Boston, 1-0. Good stuff from the fourth line and Carlo has looked better paired up top with Chara.
Will be interesting to see if Cassidy continues to shuffle up his lines — a few solid chances from the DeBrusk-Krejci-Pastrnak line in the closing minutes of the period.
10:39: DeBrusk - Krejci - Pastrnak out on the ice now for the Bruins.
10:34: B's kill the Chara penalty but looks like Carlo is hurting after blocking a shot with his hand.
10:32: Now a power play for Vancouver after Chara trips up Boeser.
10:31: 1 SOG during that power play. Now 0-for-8 on the trip.
10:27: Nice shift from the fourth line leads to Kuraly drawing a penalty. B's 0-for-7 on the man advantage this road trip.
10:26: Still not seeing much of anything from this third line, which is featuring its fourth center in eight games.
10:22: Not a great start for the Black and Gold with one shot on goal through eight minutes of play.
10:15: Vancouver scores just 3:40 into the game. Suter fights for the puck with Vaakanainen and fires in a slow shot that slips past Halak. Not a good look for Halak or the Vaakanainen / Grzelcyk pairing. 1-0 Canucks.
10:10: Puck is dropped and we're underway.
9:48: Here's the update:
UPDATE: David Backes (not feeling well) will not play in tonight's game.
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 21, 2018
- The Black and Gold will be without two reliable skaters on the blue line, as both Charlie McAvoy and Kevan Miller were sent back to Boston to undergo further testing. In their place will be Steven Kampfer and 19-year-old Urho Vaakanainen, who was called upon an emergency basis from Providence. He played last night in Bridgeport before making the long flight out to Vancouver.
- "McAvoy yesterday said he wasn't feeling right so we contacted our medical staff back home and he's on a plane today to undergo some tests,” Bruce Cassidy said of McAvoy’s ailment. It's a vague answer because I don't know what is going on. Charlie just said he wasn't feeling right so we wanted to make sure he gets looked at and go from there. I think he got hit against Edmonton or he did get hit against Edmonton last week, hasn’t felt well. He was trying to play through it…we want to make sure he’s doing OK, so that’s step one."
- Miller is dealing with a hand injury after blocking a shot in Thursday’s loss to the Oilers.
- Elsewhere, Jaroslav Halak will get the start for the second game in a row for the Black and Gold, with Cassidy opting to ride the hot hand in place of an inconsistent Tuukka Rask (2-2-0, 4.08 GAA, .875 save percentage).
- The shuffling on the third line also continued Saturday, with Anders Bjork set to replace Ryan Donato, who posted a dreadful 15.38 Corsi For Percentage in 7:33 of 5-on-5 play Thursday against the Oilers. During that stretch, the forward was out on the ice for three high-danger scoring chances for the Oilers, and zero for the Black and Gold.
- Vancouver star rookie Elias Pettersson will miss his third straight game due to a concussion - he skated before the morning practice for the first time since being injured against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 13.
- The Canucks are 3-1 in their last four games, with sniper Brock Boeser posting four points in his past five games.