The jerks are in town.
For the record, I don’t have an issue with the Hurricanes post game celebrations. The job of the players is to win hockey games and put people into the seats. Between their on-ice play, and postgame antics, they’re doing both. Commissioner Gary Bettman recently had a good quote when asked about the matter, and I absolutely agree with him.
The Carolina Hurricanes enter Boston Tuesday winners of five straight, and eight of their last 10. The Bruins enter the contest with points in 16 straight, and a three-game winning streak.
The news on the Bruins front is not all too great, however. After getting Kevan Miller’s MRI results back, Miller’s status has been changed from day-to-day to week-to-week.
“He got a little bit of bad news the other day with his MRI. We didn't think it was much. They found something there, so it's a little more serious than we first thought,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy “So he's been classified as week-to-week as opposed to day to day."
On the David Pastrnak side of things, progress continues to be made. Pastrnak once again skated Tuesday morning, this time doing so with a stick in hand. Pastrnak didn’t do any stick handling, but seeing him on the ice with a stick in hand is a promising sign as the Bruins leading goal scorer nears his return from a hand injury.
After returning to practice on Monday, Sean Kuraly remains out Tuesday as he battles his way back from a concussion. With Kuraly still out, Peter Cehlarik gets another shot with Charlie Coyle and David Backes. Cehlarik was benched in Saturday’s victory over the Devils.
“There was a few things we didn’t like,” Cassidy said Saturday. “We’ve talked about allowing guys to play through certain parts of their game and sometimes it’s better to sit and watch. Tonight, we chose the latter.”
Cehlarik logged just 8:54 of ice time Saturday.
Jaroslav Halak will get the start Tuesday, with Rask going Thursday against the Panthers. With 17 games remaining in the regular season, Cassidy addressed how the team plans on handling the goalie splits leading up to the playoffs.
“We've penciled in all the starts from now until the end of the year, barring performance issues or injuries. So far the performance has been excellent, injuries, good. So we're going to try to stick to it, for the most part, Tuukka has a few more than Halak, but we're not gonna run Tuukka into the ground because Halak's played very well,” said Cassidy.
“We're fortunate, I would guess it's probably 10 and seven, maybe even nine and eight. But it won't be 12 and five."
10 more Rask starts would give him 45 on the season, his lowest stat total since the lockout shortened 2012-13 season. Rask has started 60 or more games in three of the last four seasons.
Like they did when the Bruins visited the Hurricanes earlier this season, Carolina will pay homage to the Hartford Whalers, by playing in Whalers throwback jerseys.
I’m certainly here for some Brass Bonanza.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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