Game Day Preview: Panthers vs. Bruins

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Tonight the Florida Panthersbegin a 2 game road trip in Boston and will start a schedule of 6 games over the next 10 days with all but one game (Red Wings) against Eastern Conference opponents.  Florida comes into tonights game with a 5-9-1 record and two consecutive losses to the Washington Captials in which they were outscored 11-5.

There is some good news for the Cats however.  Back in the lineup tonight will be Radek Dvorak who is coming back from a knee injury and Dominic Moore and Kamil Kreps, which will add some speed to the linuep, as well as some much needed defence.  The Panthers are leading the league in shots against with a lofty 35.1 per game average.

Florida was 1-3 against Boston last season going 0-2 at the Fleet Center. Tomas Vokoun will be back in the nets tonight and I would bet that over the next 6 games, unless he’s atrocious, we will see him in all of them.  Vokoun’s record against the Bruins is 4-6-1 with a 2.80 GAA.

Statistically speaking for the Panthers the leading scorer is Steven Reinprecht with 9 goals and 5 assists for 14 points followed by Lazy Ass who has 4 goals and 7 assists for 11 points, however is showing some signs of playing slightly better. Rusty and The Little Weasel have a gaudy -8.  So much for their defence!

The Boston Bruins are coming off a 3-0 shutout victory over the Pittsburgh Penshits in which Tim Thomas made 27 saves for his 14th career shutout and appears to be getting himself back on track after an inconsistent start.  Leading the Bruins in scoring is Patrice Bergeron who has 12 points on 6 goals and 6 assists.  Boston will be playing without forwards Marc Savard who is out with a foot injury and Milan Lucic who is out with a injury to his finger.  David Krejci returns after missing time due to having the swine flu. 

Boston also has a player with probably one of the best names in the game in Byron Bitz.  I believe that last year Bitz scored his first NHL goal against the Panthers and played a very solid and physical game against them.  At 6′ 5″, I would expect nothing less.  Speaking of first goals, look for Andrew Ference to get his first of the season tonight as the Panthers have a habit of allowing that type of thing to happen.

Quick note on special teams, the Bruins Power Play ranks 27th and the Panthers power play is 28th.  In addition the Bruins have killed off 28 of the last 29 power plays against them.

Will be interesting to see what happens with The Stripper tonight as head coach Peter DeBoer has indicated the experiment at forward is over.  Will he dress as a defenceman, or will he be a healthy scratch?  Tune it tonight to find out this and the answers to all your other questions about the Florida Panthers.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers