BRUINS (5-1-1) at MAPLE LEAFS (4-3-1) 7p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN1, NESN, NHL.TV
Tavares sustained a broken finger when he was hit on the right hand by a shot from Morgan Rielly in a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. He is expected to miss a minimum of two weeks. Frederik Andersen, who backed up Michael Hutchinson against the Capitals, will start for the Maple Leafs, who are 2-3-0 in their past five games. Bruins center David Krejci will miss his second-consecutive game with an upper body injury sustained during a 4-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday. Jaroslav Halak will start for the Bruins, who are 2-0-1 in their past three games.
Players to watch
Bruins forward David Pastrnak has seven points (six goals, one assist) in his past two games and 13 points (eight goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak. Maple Leafs forward Kasperi Kapanen had three points (one goal, two assists) on Wednesday against the Capitals and has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past four games.
They said it
"I don't think we've played our best hockey by any stretch. Our record is probably a product of really good special teams, some timely scoring and really good goaltending. We're not as tight as we typically are, we're giving up more than we typically do so we have some areas we need to address." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy "Kerfoot is a way better player than we expected; he's way grittier and got more grease to him. We think he's going to make way more plays as time goes on and he gets more comfortable. He has to continue to work on his defensive side, so he has the puck more. That's the big thing for him, having the puck more." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on center Alex Kerfoot, who is being elevated in the lineup in the absence of Tavares
Bergeron missed practice on Friday but will play. … Spezza will play after being a healthy scratch for the past three games.
Stat pack
Marchand has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) during a six-game point streak. … Bergeron has seven points (two goals, five assists) during a six-game point streak. … Krug has four points (zero goals, four assists) in his past two games. … Mikheyev has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past three games. … Marner has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past four games.
