Bruins vs Sharks Preview and Prediction
The Boston Bruins look to salvage their current road trip with a win tonight when they face the San Jose Sharks.
Boston has lost two straight games and is currently 28-14-2. The Bruins lead the Atlantic division by 2 points over Tampa Bay and 3 points over Montreal. Boston is 5-5-o in its last 10 games overall.
San Jose is 28-11-6 on the season and is currently in second place in the Pacific division 9 points behind current leader the Anaheim Ducks. The Sharks are 7-3 in their last 10 games overall.
This season the teams play twice head-to-head and this is the second game. The Bruins behind 38 saves by Tuukka Rask and a goal and assist by David Krejci defeated the Sharks at home 2-1 on October 24.
The Bruins trip out west has not been kind, as they have lost both games thus far. Salvaging the trip however will be no easy task as San Jose is 16-1-3 at home this season in the SAP Center.
On Tuesday, the Bruins started their road trip with a 5-2 loss against Anaheim and on Thursday were defeated by the Los Angeles Kings 4-1. Now facing the Bruins is the league’s fifth strongest offense. San Jose is averaging over 3 goals each game. Rask has given up 8 goals in just the past 38 shots faced and was yanked out of the game on Thursday during the second period after allowing 3 goals on just 18 shots.
Zdeno Chara the Bruins captain and top defender will see more ice time as Johnny Boychuk will miss tonight’s game due to personal reasons.
San Jose is 9-3-2 in their inter-conference games including 7-1-1 against teams from the Atlantic Division. Their only loss was the 2-1 defeat at Boston in October.
The Sharks won their last game Thursday night versus Detroit 4-1 with Joe Pavelski scoring twice and Antti Niemi stopping 24 Red Wings shots. The Sharks also got Tommy Wingels and Tyler Kennedy back after injuries.
Both Gregory Campbell and Carl Soderberg have assists streaks of three consecutive games for Boston. For San Jose, Pavelski has scored five goals in the past 3 games.
Joe Thornton has 45 assists, which leads the league, with one assist, or more in 12 of his past 14 games played.
Boston’s Loui Eriksson was cleared to play from a concussion but sat out of Thursday’s loss to Los Angeles. Chris Kelly remains injured.
Matt Irwin a defenseman for San Jose is day to day, while five others are on injured reserve for the Sharks.
The Sharks are a high-powered offense that is taking on a Bruins team that is currently in a funk. Look for the Sharks to roll over the Bruins by the score of 3-1.
