Pregame Skate @ TOR: B’s Ready to Bounce Back

TORONTO, ON - The Bruins (5-1-1) took the ice for morning skate today at the Air Canada Centre in preparation for tonight’s 7 pm (ET) game against Toronto (4-3-0), and all of the B’s who traveled were accounted for on the ice.

The Black & Gold are facing a Maple Leafs team that is coming off a two-game win streak, both one-goal games against Washington (3-2) and Buffalo (4-3, OT), in which James Reimer started and Matt Frattin continued his hot streak, scoring three goals in those two victories.

On the Boston front, Shawn Thornton (concussion, 7-10 days) and Dan Paille (upper-body, day-to-day) did not make the trip to Toronto, so the B’s have 12 forwards and 7 defensemen, along with Tuukka Rask and Anton Khudobin. Rask was first off at morning skate, so it’s expected that he will start tonight opposite James Reimer.

“Paille’s doing better, got a high stick the other day, just underneath the shield,” Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien told media following the skate, on No. 20 not making the trip after a stick up high from Tyler Myers in the Sabres game on Thursday. “He’s progressing, he’s a day-to-day situation right now. We left him behind because our doctors wanted to be cautious.”

“We talked about being a little bit more cautious in a shortened season, so that’s the decision we made with him.”

Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci - following maintenance days at Ristuccia on Friday - were back on the ice. The top two lines remained the same during line rushes (no reason to break up those trios), and Chris Bouruqe was back as left wing on the third line with Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly.

With two Merlot liners out of the lineup, Gregory Campbell was centering Lane MacDermid and Jamie Tardif, and all seven defensemen were on the ice. It looks like Tardif will get to play his first NHL game not too far away from his hometown of Welland, Ontario.

Read the full pregame update on BostonBruins.com by clicking here, with locker room quotes from Toronto-natives Dougie Hamilton and Tyler Seguin, and how the B’s have already put Buffalo behind them.

-Caryn Switaj
^CS