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Ice Breakers: Bruins-Panthers, Sunday 12/27

The Bruins (18-11-7) will look to continue their winning ways this afternoon in the Sunshine State, in the first half of a pair of games down in Florida. Today they begin with the Florida Panthers (16-16-7), a team that has been on the cusp of the playoff picture since the season’s beginning.

This will be the second meeting of the year for these two teams. In the first matchup, the two teams skated to a scoreless tie through 65 minutes of regulation and overtime, before Cory Stillman put one past Tim Thomas in the fourth round of the shootout to give the Panthers a 1-0 win.

Let’s look at a few more notes before today’s skate…

• Both teams head into today’s game with identical 5-3-2 records in their last 10 games.
• For Boston, both Milan Lucic (high ankle sprain) and Derek Morris (undisclosed) made the trip with the team. Morris is likely to play today, while Lucic is still doubtful.
• Injuries have hit Florida hard, as Stillman (knee), forwards David Booth (concussion), Kenndal McArdle (shoulder), and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (knee) are out for the Panthers, and defenseman Nick Tarnasky (broken orbital bone) is doubtful for today.
• Scoring for the Panthers is led by center Stephen Weiss (18G, 19A), followed by winger Nathan Horton (13G, 24A) and center Steven Reinprecht (11G, 17A).
• Goalies for the Panthers are Tomas Vokoun (11-11-10, 2.62GAA) and ex-BC Eagle Scott Clemmensen (5-4-0, 3.69GAA).

Tags: Boston Bruins, Derek Morris, Florida Panthers, Ice Breakers, Milan Lucic, Tomas Vokoun