(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Home Team, Boston Bruins: 33-27-12, 78 points, 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 15-14-6 at home, 5-4-1 last 10

• 30th with 2.38 goals-for per game
• 2.39 goals-against ranks the B’s 2nd overall
• 20th in the NHL with a 17.2% rate on the power play
• 1st in the league with an 86.3% success rate on the penalty kill

After laying an egg in the TD Garden last Thursday against Matt Cooke and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Bruins look to make it three in a row tomorrow night and pull even closer to the sixth- and seventh-seed teams in the East – Montreal and Philadelphia.

It was just a couple of weeks ago where Boston was teetering between eighth to 11th place in the East. Now the Bruins seem to be distancing themselves from the 10th place Rangers (defeating NY 2-1 on Sunday) and the ninth-seed Thrashers (4-0 blanking of Atlanta on Tuesday night) by a few points each.

One thing in particular that the Bruins need to work on is their power play. With the absence of Marc Savard for the last eight games – and who is most likely done for the season – the Black-and-Gold have gone just 1-for-21 over that span.

Lineups:
Marco Sturm – Patrice Bergeron – Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler – David Krejci – Michael Ryder
Milan Lucic – Vladimir Sobotka* – Miroslav Satan
Shawn Thornton – Steve Begin – Daniel Paille

Zdeno Chara – Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference – Johnny Boychuk
Mark Stuart – Dennis Wideman

Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas

PP1 & PP2 (flex): Sturm–Krejci–Recchi (D) Bergeron–Chara – Wheeler—Satan—Ryder (D) Seidenberg—Wideman

IR: Marc Savard (concussion)

*Sobotka is doubtful for tomorrow night’s game after being checked, and checked hard, in the boards by Evgeni Artyukhin in Atlanta on Tuesday night. Sobotka played just 0:51 of his first and only shift. [Read More —->]