B’s Try To Slow Down Ilya, Thrashers

Tonight the Boston Bruins will embark on a four game road trip with the first stop being in the city of Atlanta to take on Ilya Kovalchuk and the rest of the streaking Thrashers.

The Bruins are coming off a disappointing loss on Monday to the New York Islanders, where Matt Moulson and the rest of the youthful Isles lit Tuukka Rask up en route to a 4-1 romp of Boston at the TD Garden. In what’s becoming too typical for the 2009-10 B’s, the Boston offense and powerplay was pronounced dead at the scene. The Bruins went 0 for 5 on the man-advantage, including a migraine-inducing failed opportunity to capitalize on a 5-on-3 advantage.

In the month of November, the Boston Bruins are 3-for-26 on the powerplay, and 9-for-70 on the season, good for dead last in the National Hockey League.

However, tonight the B’s march into Philips Arena with the powerplay’s potential saving grace potentiallyback in the line-up in Marc Savard. Savard, who’s missed the past 13 games with a broken foot, has made the trip down with the club for tonight’s game in Atlanta and will be a game time decision. While the powerplay was struggling even before the injury to Savard, 113 out of Savard’s 269 career points with the Boston Bruins have come on the powerplay (42%), and three out of his seven on the 2009-10 have come with the advantage.

While Savard has made the trip and is listed as a game-time decision, fellow top-liner and bruising forward, Milan Lucic, will in fact be in the line-up tonight for Boston.

Lucic has not played since October 16th, where he broke his index finger against the Stars. The 6’4″ winger has three points in six games this season and will be looking to continue his relatively significant career success against the Thrashers (five goals and four assists in nine games).

(If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t put money on Savard in the line-up tonight.)

In Atlanta, the Thrashers will look to continue their recent winning ways at home, and make it five in a row overall. Led by captain Ilya Kovalchuk, who has three goals and eight points in three games since returning from a broken foot, the B’s cannot focus on just containing Kovalchuk tonight as the Thrashers have received some excellent help from their secondary scorers.

Maxim Afinogenov, a familiar face to Boston from his days with Buffalo, is in the midst of a rejuvenation in a what-looked-to-be-over NHL career under John Anderson’s Thrashers. Afinogenov has points in 12 out of 17 games this season, including a remarkable November where he has 10 points in seven games.

Along with Mad Max, the B’s will look to contain 6’6″ Nik Antropov (16 assists in 17 games) and waiver-wire steal from 2008-09, Rich Peverley, who has five powerplay goals and 23 points this season.

Between the pipes for Atlanta will likely be Ondrej Pavelec, a second round pick from the 2005 NHL Draft who’s been selectively dominant thus far for the Thrash. Pavelec’s brightest moment so far came on a Halloween 50-save performance against the Ottawa Senators, which he followed up with a win against Montreal where he gave up four goals. In the 22-year old Slovak’s last game, he blanked the Kings en route to a 38-save shutout performance. Just which Pavelec will show up in the crease tonight for Atlanta?

Pavelec will be opposed by 2009 Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas. Certainly hurting from a lack of offense, Thomas is 5-6-3 on the season with three shutouts and a 2.33 goals against average.

Perhaps the biggest storyline of this game will be decided by the special teams. The Bruins are led by their penalty kill, the first best in the Eastern Conference, third in the NHL, while Atlanta comes into tonight boasting the NHL’s second most lethal powerplay and fourth best penalty kill.

Needing a momentum lift, the B’s should consider throwing Shawn Thornton out there early to get into it with perhaps Eric Boulton of the Thrashers, a player who irritated Bruins players for two fights last season in the B’s first trip to Atlanta.

Stats To Note

* Last season the Bruins went 4-0-0 against the Atlanta Thrashers.

* Ilya Kovalchuk has 34 points in 28 career games against Boston.

* Dennis Wideman was a -3 in Monday’s loss to New York, his worst +/- of the season.

* Tonight will be the first look Bruins fans have at Evander Kane, the fourth overall pick from the 2009 draft. The 18-year old Kane has 11 points in 17 games.

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Ty