Bruins-Predators Preview: Boston Aims For Back-To-Back Wins At TD Garden

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have one more challenge before enjoying a three-day holiday break.

The Nashville Predators are in town for their only regular-season game at TD Garden this season and will be aiming for a sweep of the season series with the Bruins on Tuesday night.

The Bruins put Loui Eriksson at right wing alongside David Krejci and Milan Lucic to start Sunday’s 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres, but that line wasn’t very effective. B’s head coach Claude Julien put Eriksson back in his usual role with Carl Soderberg and Chris Kelly on the third line, and they scored on their first shift together in the second period.

The Kelly-Soderberg-Eriksson trio dominated puck possession and created several scoring chances, and based on the lineup used during the morning skate, we should see this line together at the start of Friday’s game versus Nashville.

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Craig Cunningham
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Seth Griffith/Matt Fraser

Adam McQuaid participated in the morning skate and was paired with Zach Trotman. His recovery from a broken thumb suffered on Nov. 18 is “on track,” per Julien. McQuaid isn’t yet ready for game action.

Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller
Matt Bartkowski-Dennis Seidenberg
Zach Trotman-Adam McQuaid

Here’s a quick preview of Tuesday’s game.

TV, Radio Information: NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub

Season Series: 1-0 Nashville (Predators won 3-2 in a shootout on Dec. 16)

Record: Boston (17-14-3, sixth in Atlantic), Nashville (22-8-2, second in Central)

Bruins Player To Watch: Dougie Hamilton scored two goals Sunday against the Sabres, including the equalizer late in the third period that forced overtime. He also picked up an assist on Chris Kelly’s second-period tally. The 21-year-old defenseman leads all Bruins defensemen in scoring (20 points) and goals (seven). He’s also been a quality puck possession player with a 55.42 Corsi-for percentage at even strength and a team-leading Corsi-Rel among defensemen of 4.05 percent.

The Bruins will need Hamilton’s puck-moving ability and goal scoring against a Predators team that ranks second in goals against average and has one of the NHL’s best goaltenders in Pekka Rinne.

Predators Player To Watch: Mike Ribeiro has revived his career in Nashville after a disappointing end to his tenure in Arizona over the summer. He is the team’s second-leading scorer with 28 points and is the center on the top line alongside Calder Trophy candidate Filip Forsberg and Craig Smith.

Ribeiro scored a goal and won 57.1 percent of his faceoffs in the previous meeting with Boston this month.

Key Stat For Bruins: Boston’s 53.1 faceoff percentage is the fourth-highest in the league, while Nashville ranks 25th at 47.1 percent. Scoring chances won’t be easy to create against a deep, talented Predators blue line and a goaltender of Rinne’s caliber, so it’s important that the Bruins consistently win faceoffs to maintain puck possession. Patrice Bergeron (58.2 percent) and Chris Kelly (51.5 percent) are the two best faceoff men on the Bruins roster, and they combined to win 19 of 35 faceoffs (54.3 percent) against Nashville on Dec. 16.

Key Stat For Predators: Nashville ranks 29th in power-play success at 11.5 percent, but 10 of its 12 goals with the man advantage have come on the road. The Predators also are 3-for-32 on the power play in December. Boston has an 81 percent success rate on the penalty kill with nine goals against at TD Garden.

Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images