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Bruins-Kings Preview

Jan 15, 2010 - 11:10 PM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

Boston (23-16-7) at Los Angeles (26-18-3), 4:00 p.m. EDT

Despite playing without their top three centers, the Boston Bruins are coming off a victory at one of the NHL's toughest road venues. With another win, the banged-up Bruins would certainly consider their West Coast trip a success.

They will face a Los Angeles Kings team hoping to build on its own resounding victory and looking to further pull itself out of a recent funk Saturday night.

Boston (23-16-7) has spent much of the season dealing with injuries as it struggles to replicate the consistency that carried it to the top of the Eastern Conference last season. Rarely have the Bruins been so short-handed in one area as they were Thursday night at San Jose.

Centers Marc Savard, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci missed the game due to various ailments, with Krejci out of the lineup after suffering an undisclosed injury in a 4-3 loss at Anaheim on Wednesday.

Bergeron could be close to returning from a broken thumb, but Savard is expected to miss more time with a partially torn knee ligament.

Defensemen Mark Stuart and Andrew Ference also remained out, but the Bruins relied on defense to snap a three-game losing streak and pull out an improbable 2-1 shootout win over the Sharks, who came in with a 14-4-5 home record. Tim Thomas made 41 saves for Boston before stopping all four shootout attempts.

"This is an important time for us," Thomas said. "We're down in manpower and when you put in the amount of work we did tonight, to get rewarded with two points is nice. Whether it will help us at the end of the season, we'll find out."

The Bruins are in fifth place in the East as they try to solidify their positioning in what is shaping up to be a crowded postseason race.

They got a big game from defenseman Zdeno Chara, who helped hold the standout San Jose line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau to one goal, and scored the lone goal in the shootout.

"It was a huge statement game for us, especially with so many challenges facing us," Chara said. "Our top centers are missing and we had to sacrifice everything for the team. It was small parts that led to a big difference."

The Kings (26-18-3) had also dropped three straight and were mired in a 3-7-0 slump before their most recent game, a 4-0 win over Anaheim on Thursday night.

Los Angeles chased Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller midway through the second period while their own netminder, Jon Quick, picked up his first shutout of the season with 22 saves.

"It feels great, but the most important thing is we had a lot of emotion," Quick said. "We needed a win like that to bounce back from that losing streak."

The Kings have slipped to eighth place in the West, and could use more offensive consistency after being held to two goals or fewer six times in 11 games. Leading scorer Anze Kopitar has four goals and 13 assists in his last 29 games after totaling 14 goals and 14 assists in his first 18 contests.

There was plenty of offense at Staples Center the last time the Bruins visited, as Boston won 8-6 on Oct. 12, 2007. The Kings took the most recent meeting 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden on March 19, with Dustin Brown scoring the winner past Thomas.