Game Day Preview: Jets @ Bruins

When: Monday, January 21, 2013

Time: 12:00 p.m. CST

Where: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

Records: Winnipeg Jets (0-1-0), Boston Bruins (1-0-0)

Television/Radio:  TSN-JETS, NESN/ TSN 1290

The Story: Less than 48 hours after the Winnipeg Jets dropped their season opener 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators at home, the hockey club faces the Boston Bruins on Monday afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The Jets are coming off a tough loss at home in which they scored the game’s first goal but struggled to generate much offense. Despite having six power play opportunities throughout the game, Winnipeg only managed to score once on Senators goaltender Craig Anderson (Dustin Byfuglien).

Boston won its first game of the year on Saturday, a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers. The Bruins got goals from Milan Lucic, Daniel Paille and Johnny Boychuk while Tuuka Rask won his first game of the year as the team’s undisputed number-1 goalie.

Interestingly, the Jets defeated the Boston Bruins three out of four times last season including a 2-1 victory in early December that at the time ended a 15 game undefeated streak for Boston. Monday’s game will be the first game of back-to-back games for Winnipeg, who play the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.

The Bruins are led by 20-year-old centre Tyler Seguin,who led the team with 67 points last year (29 goals, 38 assists). Seguin signed a six year, $33.5 million contract before the NHL Lockout and is one of the brightest young stars in the National Hockey League. On defense, the Bruins are led, as always, by 35-year-old defenseman Zdeno Chara, a Norris Trophy finalist last season who continues to be a role-model across the league for his professionalism and elite performance.

Today’s game will be the first of three meetings between the Jets and Bruins this year. The two teams will next meet on Sunday, February 17th in Winnipeg (2:00 p.m. CST) and the Jets also host the Bruins on Tuesday, March 19th (7:00 p.m. CST).

Ondrej Pavelec is expected to start in goal for the Jets.

Follow @IllegalCurve on Twitter leading up to tonight’s game.

Projected Jets line combinations:

Goalie:

Ondrej Pavelec

Forwards:

1st: Andrew Ladd-Bryan Little- Blake Wheeler

2nd:  Evander Kane- Olli Jokinen- Kyle Wellwood

3rd:  Alexei Ponikarovsky – Nik Antropov- Alexander Burmistrov

4th:  Chris Thorburn – Jim Slater – Mark Scheifele

Defence:

Dustin Byfuglien- Tobias Enstrom

Ron Hainsey- Mark Stuart

Paul Postma–Grant Clitsome

Offensive Leaders:

Boston Bruins: Milan Lucic (1 goal, 0 assists, 1 point), Johnny  Boychuk (0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point), Daniel Paille (1 goal, 0 assists, 1 point) – 4 others tied with 1 point

Winnipeg Jets: Dustin Byfuglien (1 goal, 0 assists, 1 point), Tobias Enstrom (0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point), Andrew Ladd (0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point)

Injury Report:

Boston Bruins: Marc Savard (concussion), Tim Thomas (suspension), Jordan Caron (upper body)

Winnipeg Jets: Zach Bogosian (wrist), Antti Miettinen (upper body)

Who’s Next: The Jets play the Washington Capitals on Tuesday (6:00 p.m. ET).  Tuesday’s game will be broadcasted nationally on TSN.

QUICKIES…..Former Boston Bruin Blake Wheeler had two goals and three assists in four games versus the Bruins last year…..