Bear Essentials: Game Day @ Buffalo

1:47 p.m.

John Bishop is the beat writer for BostonBruins.com. He covers the Black & Gold hoping to offer a positive look at the team, not only from the stands and the press box, but also from inside the locker room. A graduate of Boston U. and Northeastern, 'Bish' grew up in Connecticut and moved to the Hub of Hockey in 1993. Since then he has made all four rinks at the Beanpot schools, as well as both Gardens, his icebound homes away from home. Prior to joining the TD Banknorth Garden staff in 2005, Bishop had written for several publications, with his primary focus being college hockey. He coauthored the book Bygone Boston in 2003 and hopes someday to pen a bio of Hobey Baker.

Hello True Believers.

Just got word from Buffalo -- Tim Thomas is in goal. Milan Lucic is likely to return to the Bruins lineup.

Judging by yesterday's lines, tonight's B's squad should look like this:

Axelsson-Savard-Murray
Sturm-Kessel-Kobasew
Schaefer-Metropolit-Bochenski
Lucic-Nokelainen-Thornton/Reich
Chara-Ward (sg) Thomas
Alberts-Wideman (bg) Rask
Stuart-Allen GO BRUINS!

Nothing too earth shattering going on...

2:54 p.m.
Three Boston skaters stayed home.

Patrice Bergeron (concussion), Andrew Ference (upper core injury) and Manny Fernandez (knee).

I expect Thornton to go tonight even though he had been kept out of practice on Tuesday because he took a puck off the foot versus Ottawa.

5:30 p.m.
Hey...sorry about the mess up on the fourth line. I know that Krejci is with the Baby B's. Nokelainen should be the center on the fourth line.

I was actually a little sidetracked by some BIG NEWS:

"Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron will be available to the media on Thursday, November 8 at 2:00 p.m. ET in the Will McDonough Press Room at the TD Banknorth Garden.  This will be the first time that Bergeron will address the media after suffering a grade three concussion and a broken nose in the Bruins game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, October 27."

6:18 p.m.
The full release on Patrice is on story number two on the front page. I promise to bring as much info to you on his condition and his statements tomorrow afternoon.

6:47 p.m.
Nice to hear that old friend Mike Ryan from Northeastern will play tonight. He was a fan favorite in the Dog Pound when I was at old NU.

Buffalo is hurting and are missing: connolly: Kalinin, Mair, Pratt, Spacek, Numinen.

Boston is missing Fernandes, Ference, Thornton and Patrice Bergeron.

Again, here is the B's lineup:
Axelsson-Savard-Murray
Sturm-Kessel-Kobasew
Schaefer-Metropolit-Bochenski
Lucic-Nokelainen-Reich
Chara-Ward (sg) Thomas
Alberts-Wideman (bg) Rask
Stuart-Allen GO BRUINS!

I am off to the running recap -- Story #1 on the front page. Go Bruins!