Red Wings at Bruins
With four goals in his last three games, Brad Marchand is doing his best to propel the Boston Bruins toward their eighth straight postseason berth. Marchand looks to continue his run of good fortune when the Bruins conclude their four-game homestand against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday afternoon. The pesky Nova Scotia native converted on the power play with 15 seconds remaining in the third period before scoring his team-leading 21st goal in overtime in Boston's 3-2 victory over Philadelphia on Saturday.
The Bruins have bounced back from a six-game winless streak (0-4-2) to post a 4-1-1 record and hold a two-point lead over Florida in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Detroit finds itself comfortably in third place in the Atlantic Division but saw its three-game winning streak come to a halt with a 5-2 setback to Calgary on Friday. Justin Abdelkader scored both goals against the Flames and joined Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist in tallying twice in three meetings with the Bruins this season.
TV: 12:30 p.m. ET, NBC, RSN360
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (36-16-11): Abdelkader's scoring touch aside, Detroit has been in need of some offense, and coach Mike Babcock wasn't shy about moving key cogs around to shake things up during Saturday's practice. Luke Glendening is expected to join Pavel Datsyuk and Tatar on the team's second line, while Teemu Pulkkinen - who has a league-high 34 goals with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League - was recalled for his third stint with Detroit. "We're a team that needs to bounce back," Babcock told MLive.com. "I felt our energy at practice was the best we've had in a bit."
ABOUT THE BRUINS (32-22-10): After seeing his team endure several tough stretches this season, president Cam Neely admitted he now likes what he sees out of his charges. "I've seen signs of it prior to today, we just haven’t got the results,” Neely told ESPN Boston. "Based on the way we've been playing, I think we can get better results, but there’s been some signs of different parts of the game that have shown improvement." Captain Zdeno Chara has recorded two goals in his last three contests after scoring just three times in the previous 41.
OVERTIME
1. Detroit has scored a power-play goal in four straight contests and six of its last seven.
2. Bruins D Dougie Hamilton has notched three assists in his last two games but has just one point in six career meetings with the Red Wings.
3. Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg has recorded two assists in two consecutive games after missing four contests with a head injury.