Hurricanes at Bruins
The Boston Bruins are sitting outside of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference, but they can reclaim third place in the Atlantic Division with a victory over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. The Bruins are one point behind third-place Detroit in the division and trail Philadelphia by a point for the final wild card.
Boston gave up the first six goals in a 6-4 setback at Chicago on Sunday afternoon to fall to 2-7-0 over its last nine games. The Bruins play their final three games at home, but that might not be much of an advantage given their dismal 16-17-5 record at TD Garden, including a 3-2 overtime defeat to Carolina on March 10. "We've got a big week ahead of us," Boston coach Claude Julien told the team's official website. "All we've got to do is win our games and we're in." The Bruins get a favorable break in the schedule when the Flyers and Red Wings square off on Wednesday before they host Detroit the following night.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Carolinas, NESN (Boston)
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (34-29-16): Carolina saw its run of missing the playoffs reach seven consecutive seasons following a meek effort in a 5-1 home loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. “I feel a little bad for the fans because it was not the game we wanted to play,” Jordan Staal said. “We obviously didn’t have much life.” Jeff Skinner has scored in back-to-back games to push his team-high totals to 28 goals and 50 points for the Hurricanes, who hope to have Riley Nash back in the lineup after he missed the past four games due to injury.
ABOUT THE BRUINS (41-30-8): Forward Jimmy Hayes failed to hit the scoresheet in 15 games before he was scratched from the lineup for the past two, but he's getting another opportunity with Brett Connolly sidelined by a lower-body injury. “It’s definitely a message, and you definitely need to continue moving forward,” Hayes said. “You can get out of these funks by working hard and going to the net, and hopefully get a greasy one to get going in a positive direction.” Center Patrice Bergeron has scored four times in his last four games.
OVERTIME
1. Bruins G Tuukka Rask is 4-0-2 in his last six versus Carolina, but he was pierced for nine goals in his last two outings.
2. Hurricanes F Victor Rask has scored five times in his last six games overall, but has zero points in five contests versus Boston.
3. Boston's Dennis Seidenberg was back at practice Monday but he and fellow D Kevan Miller are expected to miss Tuesday's game.