Preview: Bruins at Coyotes
Gracenote
Oct 14, 2017
The Boston Bruins have followed a stirring season-opening win over the reigning Western Conference champion with a humbling home-and-home sweep by the worst outfit of the league last season. The Bruins look to bounce back against another Western foe on Saturday as they vie for their 11th consecutive victory over the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy would like to leave his team's last two performances versus Colorado in his rear-view mirror, with a 4-0 setback in Boston on Monday being followed by a 6-3 loss two nights later at the Pepsi Center. "I'm not in the excuse making business," Cassidy said. "It's a National Hockey League game and two points are two points every night. We've just got to be more intelligent and more focused with those decisions, whether it's rust or not we've got to correct that." Arizona has plenty to correct in its own right, as it followed a home-and-home sweep by expansion Vegas with a 4-2 setback versus Detroit on Thursday. "It's not good, it's really not good," goaltender Louis Domingue said. "We'll look back at the end of the year and we're going to look at those four games and we have one point. It's not good enough. We're close, but close is far from being good enough."
TV: 9 p.m. ET, NHL.TV, NESN (Boston), FSN Arizona
ABOUT THE BRUINS (1-2-0): Four-time Selke Trophy winner Patrice Bergeron skated on his own during Thursday's practice, but is expected to miss his fourth straight game as he deals with the mysterious lower-body injury. "It doesn't look like he'll be in, but I don't want to get ahead of myself," Cassidy said. "It hurts. He's arguably our best player night in and night out. He makes people around him better and we use him in all situations." Kevan Miller was helped off the ice in practice after taking a puck off the top of his right knee, but Cassidy told reporters that the defenseman "should be fine."
ABOUT THE COYOTES (0-3-1): Domingue likely will get the nod on Saturday with Antti Raanta deemed "day-to-day" with the lower-body injury he sustained versus the Red Wings. Fellow goaltender Marek Langhamer, who has one career game of NHL experience, practiced with the team on Friday, hours after he was an emergency recall from Tucson of the American Hockey League. Clayton Keller, who was the seventh overall pick of the 2016 draft, scored both goals against Detroit and has a team co-leading four points (three goals, one assist) in four games this season and six (three goals, three assists) in seven career contests.
OVERTIME
1. Two of Arizona C Max Domi's four points this season have come on the power play (one goal, one assist).
2. The Bruins have defeated the Coyotes 10 straight times, dating to 2010 when the teams opened the season with two games in Prague, Czech Republic.
3. Arizona assigned F Emerson Etem to Tucson on Friday.
PREDICTION: Bruins 4, Coyotes 1