Event: Boston Bruins vs. New York Rangers
Date/Time: Sunday, March 4, 2012 - 12:30 p.m. EST.
Location: Madison Square Garden (Capacity: 18,200), New York, N.Y.
Broadcast Info: Sunday’s game between the Bruins and the Rangers will be broadcast live on NBC, TSN2, and RDSI. The game can also be heard on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with Dave Goucher providing play-by-play, and Bob Beers providing analysis.
Last Time Out: The Bruins showed some promise after starting the month off right with a win against the New Jersey Devils, but it went back to their earlier trends and took a 3-2 loss to the Islanders--third worst in the Eastern Conference.
Once again injuries and the second period plagued the team, losing both Tuukka Rask and Daniel Paille in the same game. Rask went down in the middle of the second frame after attempting to save a redirected shot and falling to the ice in obvious pain. He had to be helped off the ice and could miss a significant part of the rest of the season depending on the exact injury.
Put him alongside Daniel Paille (also injured yesterday), Andrew Ference, Nathan Horton and Rich Peverley and you have a Bruins team that’s hurting for players right now.
Once again Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic provided the spark for the team and each scored a goal in the losing effort.
The Rangers also didn’t have much luck in their last game, taking a 4-3 OT loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday. They scored in each of the three periods, but couldn’t convert it in the extra frame to take the two points.
Henrik Lundqvist suffered just his 12th loss this season.
Storyline: The Rangers have had enormous success against the Bruins this year and currently are unbeaten in the two games they’ve played against each other this year.
In those two games, the Bruins have given up three goals each time, and they have been blanked at home in their most recent bout on Valentine’s Day.
With Rask out, it’s no surprise who will be in net this afternoon, and Tim Thomas has stated that he will just continue to go out there and try to do his job. He will once again be staring Lundqvist down on the other end of the ice and will try and boost his team’s morale and get two points closer to the top of the conference.
Players To Watch: The Bruins new top line of Lucic, Seguin and David Krejci has continued to improve and has been showing a lot of promise in the past couple of games.
Marian Gaborik has two goals and one assist in the two games against the B’s, including a power play goal in overtime with four seconds to go back in January.
Prediction: The B’s are hurting right now and they are fighting against a team that is top in the conference for a reason. With even more injuries, it’s tough to see them come out of this one with a win. Final Score: Rangers 4, Bruins 2.
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