Boston Bruins: 5 Keys to Thursday's Matchup with the Florida Panthers

Less than 72 hours after learning they will soon become Conference C cohabitants, the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers will commence their 2011-12 season series Thursday night at the TD Garden. And extraordinarily enough, this card promises to be of interest even to casual and/or nonpartisan observers.

Despite coming off a 2-1 letdown in Winnipeg on Tuesday, the Bruins continue to lead the Northeast Division with the help of a 14-1-1 run dating back to Nov. 1. And they are tied with Philadelphia for the league’s third-best winning percentage at .673.

The Panthers, meanwhile, reside atop the Southeast Division and are a not-so-shabby 9-4-1 dating back to Nov. 8. Overall, their .630 winning percentage ranked them eighth on the NHL leaderboard.

Florida’s relevance, which has been largely lacking for well over a decade, lends automatic intrigue to the surface of Thursday night’s contest.

But what rides below that surface to fuel this matchup’s compelling appearance? The answer lies in the following five items.

Fine Finishers

The Bruins are one of six remaining teams with a perfect record when leading after two periods, boasting a 13-0-0 record in that situation. Florida has yet to lose in regulation when safeguarding a lead to commence the third period, going 9-0-2.

On the flip side, the Panthers have only mustered four points with a 1-4-2 record when a deficit is glowering upon them after 40 minutes. When the Bruins have faced that challenge, they have gone 2-6-1.

When tied after two, the Bruins are 2-2-0, the Panthers a more proficient 5-1-0.

Bottom line: Boston especially would serve itself well to charge up a productive jumpstart and be in unquestionable control by the time this game is two-thirds complete.

Monster’s Head

The Panthers’ top line of Tomas Fleischmann, Kris Versteeg and Stephen Weiss has combined for 35 goals in the first 27 games of the season. The rest of Florida’s roster has inserted a cumulative 43 goals with no individuals hitting double digits in that column yet.

Not to say that the lower 75 percent couldn’t provide supplementary scoring as needed, especially with the newly obtained Krys Barch likely making his Florida debut. Nonetheless, curbing the Panthers’ top line ought to make this battle substantially easier for the Bruins.

Watching The Points

While their top forward trinity can finish like no one else on their depth chart, the Panthers have a full brigade of lethal, playmaking point patrollers. Veteran blueliner Brian Campbell leads the team with 21 assists and Dmitry Kulikov is tied for third on Florida’s charts with 16 helpers.

As a whole, the Panthers defense has already combined for 57 assists this season, with plenty of density in both even-strength and special teams’ situations. Campbell, along with Kulikov, Jason Garrison and Ed Jovanovski have pitched in eight goals and 30 points on the power play.

If and when the Bruins go to the box, this will mean pitting the league’s fourth-best power play against the fourth-best penalty kill. And at all times in their own zone, Boston’s forwards will need to be especially keen on fettering and flustering Florida’s defensemen.

Tight-fisted Old Hands

The Bruins’ 37-year-old starter Tim Thomas figures to get the nod after resting in favor of Tuukka Rask on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the 35-year-old Jose Theodore has not seen game action for a week, sitting out the Panthers’ last bout with flu-like symptoms, though he could be back in the blue paint for Thursday.

For the better part of this season, both stoppers have been consistently stingy. Thomas still has yet to allow more than three goals in a single game while Theodore has done likewise in each of his last 14 full-length outings, going 7-4-3 in that span.

Getting the other team’s masked man to blink two or three times is one tall task, but helping to prevent one’s own goalie from letting in that much may be a more pivotal priority.

Sturm’s Return

This point bears no real relation to the game at hand. But it is worth noting that Marco Sturm, who scored 106 goals in 302 games with the Bruins and played a vital role in the team’s recent renaissance, has changed addresses and uniforms four times in the last year and is finally making his return to the Garden.

For the expected audience of 17,565 that will try to urge its beloved Spoked-Bs to another win, it is crucial that they avoid giving Sturm the Adam Vinatieri treatment. The man who scored the clinching goal in Game 6 of both the 2008 Eastern Conference quarterfinals and 2010 Winter Classic deserves a cordial reception from the Causeway crowd.