Jared Knight returns to the AHL tonight for Providence (Photo credit: slidingsideways/Flickr)
Tonight the Providence Bruins face the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in Providence. The Bruins (17-13-0-2) are tied for 3rd place in the Atlantic division with the Manchester Monarchs (16-15-2-2), and trail 2nd place Worcester (18-13-1-2) by 3 points. Bridgeport is 2nd in the Northeast division, behind Springfield. This will be the 3rd meeting between the 2 teams this season and Providence is still looking for their 1st win against the Sound Tigers. The previous meetings saw Bridgeport win 4-2 at home in October and 6-2 in Providence in November.
The Providence Bruins will be without 6 top players – Chris Bourque, Ryan Spooner, Jamie Tardif, Lane MacDermid, David Warsofsky, and Matt Bartkowski – who will all be healthy scratches as they await Boston Bruins training camp to open this weekend. The Providence Journal reports that tonight’s lineup will be as follows:
Forwards:
Max Sauve – Carter Camper – Craig Cunningham
Justin Courtnall – Christian Hanson – Bobby Robins
Tyler McNeely – Kyle MacKinnon – Jared Knight
Justin Florek – Trent Whitfield – Alden Hirschfeld
Defense:
Tommy Cross – Zach Trotman
Torey Krug – Kevan Miller
Ryan Button – Eric Baier
Goal:
Niklas Svedberg
It will be Jared Knight‘s 1st game back in the AHL since sustaining a lower-body injury earlier in the season. The P-Bruins might be starved for offense nonetheless, especially with their entire top line and top 3 scorers sitting out. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers have some top AHL scorers, such as Nino Niederreiter (8th overall in points), but it is unclear if he and other NHL prospects will play in tonight’s game as they likely will be awaiting training camp to open for their NHL affiliate, the New York Islanders.
Bridgeport has the 9th best power play in the league with a 19.9% success rate, while Providence is 21st at 15.1%. Providence’s abysmal penalty kill is ranked 26th at 80.0%, although Bridgeport is 17th overall (83.4%) and even worse on the road at 27th (78.3%). In terms of average goals scored per game, Bridgeport ranks 9th in the league (3.11) and Providence 24th (2.47). On the bright side, Providence is 13th in goals against (2.75) and Bridgeport is 28th (3.14).
Providence is 8-7-0-2 at home this season and Bridgeport is 8-10-1-1 on the road. In the last 10 games, Providence is an even 5-5, and Bridgeport is 5-3-1-1. The puck drops at 7:05pm.
A Cup A Bruin 