Tonight the Bruins host the Canadiens at the TDBanknorth Garden. After a blip in their season with a two game losing streak, the Bruins have won their last two games at home with 6-4 and 5-1 wins over Ottawa and Carolina, respectively. But the two game winning streak hasn't been quiet.
Manny Fernandez went down with "general soreness" after his win against Ottawa on Thursday. Tuukka Rask was recalled to back up Tim Thomas on Saturday. Then Kevin Regan was recalled, while Rask went back to Providence, and participated in practice yesterday. Now Rask is back in Boston to be back up tonight.
Milan Lucic also went down with an undisclosed injury suffered on January 6th. He skated with the team this morning and is listed as a game time decision.
Bruins fans received some bad news yesterday when reports came out that Phil Kessel will miss some significant time after being diagnosed with mononucleosis. He could miss up to a month.
The only good news is Shane Hnidy, after taking a puck in the eye in the game against the Wild, has been cleared to play tonight.
Rask isn't the only call-up from Providence. Martin St. Pierre has been steady in the Bruins line-up, even if he is sent down between games. Martins Karsums is also up in Boston and he recorded his first NHL point on Saturday. Lastly, Byron Bitz made his NHL debut on Saturday and notched his first NHL point assisting on Mark Stuart's goal.
Also out of the Bruins line-up are Marco Sturm (surgery today), Andrew Ference (leg) and Patrice Bergeron (concussion). Ference and Bergeron have been skating before the team the past couple of days. Bergeron took his first spin on the ice on Sunday, the Bruins' day off.
Across the Ice: The Montreal Canadiens have a four game winning streak. They have scored no less than five goals in each of those four games. In their last ten games, they are 8-1-1. Nine Canadiens players have point streaks. Don't think they're winning with a full line-up at the moment. They have a number of players out with injuries that include: Christopher Higgins, Mathieu Dandenault, Saku Koivu, Georges Laraque, Alex Tanguay and goaltender Carey Price.
Tonight will be a tough test for the Bruins facing their hot rivals in their last home game before a mini road trip on Thursday. The game can be seen on Versus.
