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BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins just released a statement announcing that, despite the snow, tonight's game against the Florida Panthers at TD Garden will be played as scheduled at 7 p.m.

"The Bruins encourage all fans to use caution and allow for extra time when traveling to and leaving the Garden due to the expected snow," the release read.

BOSTON -- When the Bruins announced on June 22, 2010 that they had acquired forwards Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell from the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Dennis Wideman and a pair of draft picks, it was evident Boston got the better of the deal.

The Bruins host the Panthers tonight (7:05) at TD Garden.

Both Horton and Campbell have been important components for the Bruins this season. Horton has 8 goals, 7 assists for 15 points in 16 games. Campbell has played an important role on the team’s energy line, while posting a total of 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists) in 16 games.

Wideman has 2 goals and 8 assists for 10 points in 16 games for the Panthers, while compiling a 0 plus/minus rating.

“I think we lost a pretty good defenseman, but that was the price we pay to get a pretty good forward in Horton, and obviously we got Campbell, who many probably don’t see him in the trade as much as they see Horton, but [Campbell] has been a great asset to us.

“I have a feeling it was a pretty good deal for both clubs.”

At the time of the trade, the 25-year-old Horton, who had spent his entire career with the Panthers, said he needed a change of scenery and felt Boston would be a perfect fit. It has been.

“I’m still as happy as ever,” Horton said. “It’s still an unbelievable feeling to be here, and I don’t think that feeling is ever going to go away because it definitely hasn’t stopped.

“Once you’re around it, it’s such a great feeling when you have such great fans that are passionate. We have great teammates and great staff. It’s just a great feeling to be around.

“I know how good it is here, and I’ve said all along that I love it, and can’t get enough of it. For me, it’s been great. I’m so excited every day to come to the rink.”

OUTCOME: After a solid 1-0 overtime victory over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, the Boston Bruins had another one of their lapses at home as they dropped a 1-0 decision to the lowly Florida Panthers on Thursday night at TD Garden. The Bruins had their chances, but they just couldn’t drive one home past Panthers goalie Scott Clemmensen, who posted 36 saves. His teammates also blocked 32 shots en route to the win.

“You create chances to score, and you do all those things, and you more or less carry the play all night, but your inability to score is coming back to bite you again,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “You can have all the chances in the world, but you have to find a way to bury those.”

POSTSEASON OUTCOME: Even though the Bruins (82 points) lost, Philadelphia (82 points) and Atlanta (80) did as well, which means Boston still sits in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Four points separate the sixth through 10th spot in the East.

“It’s more frustrating than anything else,” said Julien. “We had an opportunity here to make room for ourselves and we didn’t. We can’t stand here and feel sorry for ourselves and say, ‘We tried our best and we couldn’t score.’ If we want to win hockey games, we have to score goals.”

NEWS AND NOTES: When Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference met with doctors earlier this week, he learned that not only did he have a tear in his groin, which caused a hernia, but he also tore the vein that is causing the injury to swell and fill with blood. He said he’s getting better and should be able to get back on the ice this weekend. He'll just have to deal with the injury until he can have surgery during the offseason. He has missed a total of 26 games this season.

*Rookie goaltender Tuukka Rask won the Bruins’ Seventh Player Award and was honored in a pregame ceremony. “He deserves it, it’s as simple as that,” said Julien.

*Bruins pugilist Shawn Thornton missed Thursday’s game with what the team is calling an upper-body injury. He participated in the morning skate, but was unavailable for the game against the Panthers. Julien said Thornton is day-to-day.

UP NEXT: The Bruins head out on the road for the next two games against the Maple Leafs on Saturday in Toronto and the Capitals on Monday in Washington. Only five games remain in the regular season. Boston will host the Buffalo Sabres on April 8 and the Carolina Hurricanes on April 10 before closing out the season in D.C. on April 11.

BOSTON – Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask has played in 10 of the last 11 games (5-3-0) and he’s getting the start again tonight against the Florida Panthers at TD Garden.

Bruins coach Claude Julien has leaned on the rookie netminder a lot of late, and Rask has responded with a 9-4-2 record in his last 15 decisions. He posted his fifth shutout of the season on Tuesday at New Jersey in a 1-0 overtime win.

* Andrew Ference update: The Bruins defenseman remains out of the lineup with a groin/hernia injury, but he is getting a little better, according to Julien. Earlier in the week, the Bruins felt it best to shut down Ference for the time being in order to help him heal in case he’s needed for the remainder of the season or the playoffs.

“He will get back to being able to play again at some point,” said Julien. “We really don’t know, nobody knows how long it is going to take. It is, as you know, a hernia and it depends on how quickly the swelling and all that stuff gets worked out.”

Ference has missed a total of 26 games, including tonight, with the injury. The 31-year-old blueliner recently signed a three-year extension worth $6.75 million and will need surgery during the offseason.

He could play if the Bruins need him in an emergency situation, but the team doesn’t want to risk it at this point.

“There is a guarantee that he will be back and he’ll be OK,” said Julien. “Now, how long he will last, that’s a gamble. When I say a gamble, there’s no health risk to it, but it is a gamble we are willing to take. If one of our defensemen goes down, at least there’s someone with experience to step in.”

* Marc Savard update: The Bruins forward suffered a Grade 2 concussion against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 7 and is recovering slowly. He spoke publicly for the first time last Saturday at the Garden and said he’s still feeling the lingering effects of Matt Cooke’s elbow to the head. As of this morning, Savard is unable to participate in any physical activities.

“Those symptoms have to clear first,” said Julien. “He hasn’t cleared and that’s why we said, ‘Is he going to be back this year?’ Regular season, no. After that, it will depend. The thing is, those kinds of things could change day to day. If he starts feeling better in a couple of days, now we’re able to answer questions and say he’s on the right track but he hasn’t stepped over that hurdle, yet.”

* Playoff tickets: The Bruins announced Thursday that tickets for the team’s first two home postseason games of the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs will go on sale at 11 a.m. on April 7. Tickets will be available for purchase at the TD Garden box office, online at www.bostonbruins.com or via Ticketmaster.

It remains to be seen how much the Bruins will improve over the season’s final 21 games with Dennis Seidenberg on their back end instead of Derek Morris, but it’s a pretty decent bet that Seidenberg’s situation has improved.

The veteran defenseman was dealt to Boston Wednesday from the Florida Panthers, who in the weeks and days leading up to the trade deadline also traded away veterans Jordan Leopold and Dominic Moore. The Panthers’ fire sale started just before the Olympic break, when the team’s owner put out a press release predicting major changes to the organization.

“It was tough,” admitted Seidenberg during a team-organized conference call. “Everybody knew they could’ve gotten traded, but at the end we all didn’t have control of what was going to happen. So all we could do is just go out and play. We tried to do that; it didn’t really work out as well. But at least we tried to put our heads into the game and play hockey.”

So Seidenberg gets to go from the 13th-place team in the Eastern Conference -- and a club that dealt a few key players for prospects and draft picks -- to the 8th-place team. He’s not guaranteed a trip back to the playoffs, but at least he’s back in the hunt.

“If you look at the team, they’re almost the same as they were last year,” said Seidenberg, who went head to head with the Bruins in the seven-game conference semifinal series his Carolina team won last spring. “So I think there’s no doubt in my mind that they have a chance to go deep in the playoffs this year. What the reason is for this year’s struggles, I don’t know, I haven’t followed it too close. But hopefully we’re … going to solidify our position in the top eight for the playoffs.”

Seidenberg signed with Florida over the summer as an unrestricted free agent. He said he wasn’t sure if his agent had talked to Boston then, but Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said he had some interest in the German’s services at one point. Now Seidenberg says his goal is to get a long-term deal. How he and the Bruins perform the next five weeks and beyond could determine if he gets that deal and if it comes from Boston.