Matt Poitras is a game-time decision as the Bruins visit the Penguins tonight in Game 17, according to Boston Hockey Now.
Poitras broke his nose and practiced Wednesday in a bubble shield, and he's listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Frederic Brunet is set to return to the Boston lineup after missing time.
Boston Hockey Now put out its Game 17 notes, lines and viewing info this morning.
The Bruins are 11-4-1, good for 23 points, 4th in the NHL and 1st in the Atlantic. They've won two straight, including a 3-2 shootout win over Vegas on Monday, and they're 7-2-1 over their last 10.
Poitras has 4 goals and 7 points in 12 games this season, and he's been a useful piece down the middle. Ty Anderson wrote Wednesday that it sounded like he would be a game-time decision.
Brunet's return gives the blue line a boost after a stretch where the Bruins needed one. The wait on Poitras as Brunet returns has been the lineup story all week.
Boston's road problem meets a Penguins team in a slide
Home is not the issue for this team. The Bruins are 7-1-0 at TD Garden and 4-3-1 away from it, and Marco Sturm has noticed.
He wants a cleaner effort on the road after calling out sloppy play, as covered in Sturm's demand for better road effort. Pittsburgh looks like a fair place to show it.
The Penguins are 5-8-2, 29th in the NHL, and they've lost three straight, the latest a 3-2 defeat to Vegas on Tuesday. A team with that kind of skid is exactly the opponent a coach doesn't want to give life to.
Up front, David Pastrnak leads Boston with 20 points, on 8 goals and 12 assists in 16 games. James Hagens has 12 points, 6 of them goals, and the rookie keeps pushing past expectations while Sturm keeps preaching patience.
The Bruins have scored 58 goals and allowed 38, a +20 differential, and that gap is why they sit atop the division. Beating a struggling team on the road is how they protect it.
Puck drop comes tonight, and the Poitras decision should settle before then. Boston's next road result will say plenty about whether Sturm's message got through.
