Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Championship Sunday
Playing the second contest of their current back-to-back set, the Florida Panthers (5th in Atlantic Division) will try to snap a season-long matching three-game losing skid while hosting the Boston Bruins (1st in Atlantic), who were just beaten in Tampa.
The Boston Bruins (38-6-4) recorded just their sixth regulation defeat of the season after ending a six-game overall winning run and a seven-game triumph streak on the road following a 3-2 setback against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday. Playing just two days after becoming the fastest team in NHL history to reach 80 points (47 games) with a 4-2 win at the Montreal Canadiens, the B’s tied the game twice against the Bolts, who buried the eventual winner with 6:41 left on the clock. Brad Marchand (16 goals, 46 points this year) and Pavel Zacha (9 goals, 32 points) both tallied for the Bruins, who are 1-1-0 on their current five-date road trek.
Goalie Linus Ullmark stopped 32 shots on Thursday and has now gone 25-3-1 for the 2022-23 campaign with a 1.86 GAA and a .937 save percentage. He has registered a 9-3 -1 past tally versus Florida with a 2.66 GAA and a .926 save percentage, while Jeremy Swayman (12-3-3 on the year with a 2.25 GAA and a .916 save percentage) is 0-1-0 against the Panthers historically with a 4.09 GAA and a .867 save percentage. The Bruins, meanwhile, are netting the 2nd highest number of goals per game this season (3.77), while allowing the absolute lowest quantity defensively (2.04). They are 3rd best in power play (26.8%) and top of the league in penalty kill (86.4%).