Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Florida Panthers (3-8-4, 10 points) and the Boston Bruins (8-5-1, 17 points) go head-to-head for the second of five encounters this season live from the TD Garden in Boston. The game can be live streamed here. Florida fans can hear all the action by tuning into 104.3 The Ticket while Boston fans can do the same on WBZ-FM 98.5.
Florida enters play in seventh place in the Atlantic Division, 10 points behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and are 14th in the Eastern Conference while Boston enters in fourth in the division, three points behind Tampa, and are fifth overall in the conference. The Bruins defeated the Panthers 3-2 in Florida on Oct. 17.
Panthers goalie Tim Thomas will be sidelined with a lower-body injury, so he will not face his old team in the Bruins, where he played from 2002-12 and won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy in 2011.
Florida's losing streak extended to six games after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers Monday, but the team has found ways to get points despite not winning games, but knows it won't be enough going forward.
"We are at a level that if we're serious about our preseason goal, which is to take a run at the playoffs, these are points that we have to have and we had to leave everything on the ice," coach Kevin Dineen said to NHL.com. "We had a good push-back in the third period, but we need a more complete effort."
Jacob Markstrom (1-5-3, 3.36 goals-against average, .877 save percentage) will likely backstop the Panthers tonight while Tuukka Rask has started 12 of 14 games for Boston and has put together a 7-4-1 record with a 1.74 GAA and a .941 save percentage.
The Bruins have lost four of their last five games this and are looking to beat the Panthers for the fifth straight time, but the team is coming off of a 3-2 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars.
"The first 10 minutes were good, and then we got back to some [of] our old habits," coach Claude Julien told NHL.com. "Eventually, when you play that way, you find ways to lose hockey games. And that's what we're doing right now; we're finding ways to lose."
The Bruins have been paced by David Krejci, who has 14 points off of two goals and a team-high 12 assists while Milan Lucic has led with seven tallies and added six helpers for 13 points.
The Panthers, meanwhile, have been led by Tomas Fleischmann, who is the only player in double digits in points off of three goals and eight assists for 11 points, while Scottie Upshall has a three-game point streak off of two goals and two assists.
Two teams in need of a win take the ice against each other tonight at TD Garden in Boston.
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