The Bruins head into Saturday night with no real breathing room and a chance to keep their perfect start rolling.
Boston is in St. Paul for Minnesota’s home opener at Grand Casino Arena after edging Winnipeg in overtime on Friday night.
That win came with James Hagens scoring his first NHL goal and JJ Peterka finishing it off in OT. The Wild arrive from a 3-1 road win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday.
There’s also a quick turnaround angle here that Boston handled well last season. The Bruins went 8-2-3 in the second half of back-to-backs a year ago and are 5-0-3 in their last eight. On the other side, Minnesota was strong at home last season, going 23-10-8 at Grand Casino Arena, while Boston finished 16-16-9 on the road.
David Pastrnak is set to play his 836th career NHL game, which moves him past Dit Clapper and into 13th place in franchise history for games played.
Peterka enters the night chasing a three-game goal streak. The 24-year-old has 199 career points, with 94 goals and 105 assists.
The biggest question for Boston is in net. Jeremy Swayman started Friday and stopped 30 shots in the win, and Marco Sturm didn’t commit to a decision for Saturday, saying, “We have to think about what we’re going to do tomorrow and go from there.”
Boston will skip a morning skate, and Sturm is scheduled to speak with the media in Minnesota about 90 minutes before puck drop.
The expected Bruins starter is Michael DiPietro, who posted a 25-26 AHL line of 34-8-1 with a 1.91 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage.
Minnesota’s expected lineup includes Blake Coleman, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy up front, with Kirill Kaprizov skating with Danila Yurov and Maxim Shabanov. The blue line is listed with Quinn Hughes and Jared Spurgeon, Olli Maatta and Jonas Brodin, and Daemon Hunt and Zach Bogosian. Jesper Wallstedt is the expected starter after opening at 1-0-0 with a 1.01 GAA and a .950 save percentage.
Special teams could matter, too. The Bruins are at 23.4 percent on the power play, good for ninth, and 77.0 percent on the penalty kill, which ranks 24th. The Wild come in with a 25.2 percent power play, third in the league, and an 80.3 percent penalty kill.
These teams will meet again on Nov. 14 in Boston after Saturday’s game in Minnesota.
Boston’s next stretch after this one includes Ottawa on Monday, Utah on Thursday, Philadelphia on Saturday, then road games at San Jose on Oct. 13 and Anaheim on Oct. 16.
In Other News...
Bruins First Loss Exposed An Early Problem They Can't Keep Feeding
After opening the season with a spirited overtime win in Winnipeg, the Bruins ran into a much less forgiving night in their home opener against Minnesota. Boston had the kind of early lead it wanted, but the game quickly shifted once the second period got messy, with the Wild taking advantage of the Bruins discipline issues and turning a competitive start into a far tougher ask.
The larger concern for Boston is that the problems were not limited to the scoreboard. Shot selection and offensive execution were off, and in a back-to-back stretch like this, those details can decide whether a team grinds out points or hands them away. The Bruins have already shown they can win on energy and resilience, but their first loss of the season also served as a reminder that they cannot keep feeding opponents easy chances. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Hot Start Faces Its First Real Test In Net
The Bruins quick start now gets an early wrinkle in goal, with Michael DiPietro set to make his first start for Boston against the Wild. Marco Sturm made the call after DiPietro turned heads with his work in the minors and in preseason, giving the organization a chance to see how the depth chart holds up when the schedule starts to squeeze a little tighter.
Jeremy Swayman will get the night off after starting Fridays overtime win, and the rest of the lineup is expected to stay intact. For a team trying to keep momentum rolling, this is the kind of game that can say a lot about the Bruins goaltending picture without changing much else around it. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins First Loss Exposed An Early Problem They Couldnt Overcome
The Bruins first loss of the season arrived on the second night of a back-to-back, and it came with a familiar warning sign attached. Boston held up well at even strength against Minnesota, but special teams tilted the game the wrong way, turning a competitive night into a 3-1 defeat.
Michael DiPietro made his first start for Boston and gave the team a chance with 26 saves, but the Bruins could not find a way to cash in when the game tilted toward special teams play. Penalties became the difference, and for a team trying to establish its early-season identity, the margin for error quickly disappeared. [Read more 🡒]