David Pastrnak and the Bruins host the Golden Knights tonight at TD Garden, and home ice has been very kind to Boston.
The Bruins are 10-4-1, fourth in the NHL and first in the Atlantic. It's Military Appreciation Night at the Garden, per the team, and Boston wants to protect the building that has carried this start.
The top line is the one to watch again. Marco Sturm is keeping John-Jason Peterka, Pavel Zacha and Pastrnak together, while the second and third lines get a mix of speed and youth.
Jim McBride of the Boston Globe shared the Monday morning skate lines, and the Peterka-Zacha-Pastrnak trio sits at the top of them.
Pastrnak leads the team with 19 points, eight goals and 11 assists in 15 games. Sturm has leaned heavily on that group, and the Pastrnak line workload after the Carolina loss was a talking point last week.
The home and road splits explain why tonight matters. Boston is 6-1-0 at the Garden and 4-3-1 away from it, and Sturm has been critical of the road play lately.
Goal differential tells the same story, with 55 goals for, 36 against and a +19 mark. The Bruins are 7-2-1 in their last 10 and beat Chicago 5-4 in overtime Saturday night.
Vegas is no soft landing. Ryan Craig's club is 9-5-1, sixth in the NHL, though it dropped its last game 2-5 to New Jersey on Friday.
NHL Media framed it as two of the League's top teams meeting tonight, with Bruins play-by-play man Jack Edwards' successor on the call previewing the matchup for NHL Network.
Why the Bruins lean on their Garden edge
Boston's depth has been just as important as Pastrnak. Fraser Minten has 10 points and a +9 rating, and James Hagens has 11 points as a 19-year-old on the third line.
Hagens' line has a veteran anchor, too. Elias Lindholm has 12 points and two game-winning goals, which is why that trio looks more dangerous than a typical third unit.
In goal, Jeremy Swayman getting the net against Vegas was reported earlier today by McBride.
Another win would give the Bruins seven at home in eight tries, and it would make the road questions harder to ignore. The Bruins will need that same Garden edge to travel before the Atlantic race tightens.
