Tonight's Officials
Referees Trevor Hanson (31), Eric Furlatt (27)
Linesmen Matt MacPherson (83), Steve Barton (59)
Ntl. Anthem Todd Angilly
WAYBACK MACHINE
THE PERFECT HOCKEY GAME
BOSTON vs TAMPA BAY, LIFETIME SERIES
The Bruins and Lightning are meeting for the 93rd time in their histories with the Bruins having a 59-23-9-1 record and a 308-236 scoring edge in those games.
The Bruins are 34-6-6-0 in their 46 home games of this lifetime series with a 170-104 scoring advantage in those contests.
The Bruins have won the 1st 3 games of this season’s series with a 4-3 shootout win in Tampa on 11/3, 4-1 victory in Boston on 11/27 & 4-3 victory in Tampa on 1/31 … They are 15-3-1 in their last 19 games overall vs. the Lightning & are 11-2-0 in their last 13 games vs. Tampa in Boston.
Fun Fact: The Lightning are 1 of 3 teams (PHI, OTT) that have never swept the Bruins in a season series.
TONIGHT’S GAME
The Bruins host the Lightning tonight in the 4th of 5 games between these teams and the 2nd of 3 this season at TD Garden … The Bruins are 38-28-6 thus far this season with a 19-15-0 mark on home ice … They are 16-8-1 vs. Atlantic Division opponents and are 24-17-6 vs. Eastern Conference teams this season.
They are concluding tonight their 14th of 16 sets of 3-games-in-4-nights this season … They are 7-6-1 in game 1s, 6-5-3 in game 2s and 5-6-2 in game 3s of those series so far.
They are wearing their 3rd uniform system for the 14th of 15 games this season … They are 6-6-1 in those games so far.
MILESTONES APPROACHING
Zdeno Chara is 2 points shy of his 600th NHL point.
Drew Stafford is 3 points short of his 400th NHL point.
Colin Miller is playing his 99th NHL game tonight.
INJURIES (144 total man-games lost)
Tim Schaller – Lower body injury suffered 3/8 vs DET; Has missed 6 games.
https://link.nhl.com/static/gamenotes/public/20162017/[email protected]?1490268952000
The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, who play each other at TD Garden on Thursday night, sustained losses Tuesday night that hurt their respective playoff chances.
And on Wednesday, while neither was on the ice, more bad news hit both teams.
Victories by the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders added to the woes of the teams that bring three-game losing streaks into Thursday's contest.
Toronto's victory at Columbus moved the feisty young Maple Leafs past the Bruins into third place in the Atlantic Division, still with a game in hand on Boston.
The Islanders' win over the rival New York Rangers moved them within two points of the Bruins in the battle for the last Eastern Conference wild card, also with a game in hand. Boston and the Islanders play in Brooklyn on Saturday night.
Tampa Bay remained five points out of the final wild-card spot.
The Lightning, sellers at the trade deadline, clawed their way back into the playoff picture with a four-game winning streak while prevailing in six of their first eight March contests. But they lost their last three -- all at home, allowing 15 goals in the three games, including a 5-3 setback to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay gave up three goals to the Coyotes in the third period.
"This ranks up there, though with how important the game was to us, a 3-2 lead at home going into the third in a must-win game for us," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "To give it up like we did, it's ... yeah ... it's frustrating to say the least."
Said defenseman Victor Hedman: "It's back to the drawing board. Just remember there's still a lot of games left. We obviously are disappointed in the result. We can't lay down. We can't fold. We just have to refocus."
The Bruins outplayed the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday but fell victim to great goaltending by Craig Anderson. They dipped to 5-5 in their last 10 games and are 12-6 in 18 contests under interim coach Bruce Cassidy.
Boston is trying to end two years of frustration that saw the Bruins barely miss the playoffs both seasons.
"Every year writes its own story," Cassidy said. "There's a lot of guys in that room that weren't here last year, including myself. So we'd like to write our own story.
"Clearly the last two games (Monday in Toronto, Tuesday at home) were important games for us and I thought we played very well. We had some break downs. I don't think I'm going to wake up tomorrow and see us eliminated, so we're going to go back to work on Thursday against Tampa."
The Bruins have won all three games against the Lightning this season, one in a shootout. Tuukka Rask won all three games in the Boston goal and is 12-5-1 with a 2.60 goals against average, .904 save percentage and three shutouts lifetime against Tampa Bay.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy played only one game against the Bruins in his young career. Back on Nov. 3, he stopped 28 of 31 shots before losing a 10-round shootout to the Bruins and Rask, who improved to 6-0 to start the season.
Boston winger Jimmy Hayes, who scored the shootout winner, has only two goals in 54 games this season.
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