Having won just once in their last four games, the Boston Bruins are searching for solutions rather than excuses. With new lines and all, the Black and Gold look to bounce back and avenge Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the TD Garden.

Despite their slump, the Bruins (43 points) still find themselves within striking distance of the Montreal Canadiens, who currently have a two-point lead in the Northeast Division standings. A win over the Leafs will give the Black and Gold the division lead at the end of the night. The Habs come to Boston Wednesday night, and before that, travel to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to face the red-hot Penguins.

The Leafs, meanwhile, come into tonight in sixth place in the East and trail the Bruins by six points for second place in the Northeast. Toronto, who is 4-3-3 in its last 10, lead the seventh place New Jersey Devils by one point and is four points in front of the eighth seeded New York Rangers.

After the jump, lineups, storylines, linkage and tweets of interest

Gametime: 7 p.m.
Location: TD Garden
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins (20-7-3, 43 points), Maple Leafs (17-12-3, 37 points)

Bruins’ projected lines

Brad Marchand-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Daniel Paille-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Milan Lucic-Rich Peverley-Jordan Caron
Jay Pandolfo-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Matt Bartkowski
Andrew Ference-Aaron Johnson

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin

Leafs’ projected lines

James van Riemsdyk-Tyler Bozak-Phil Kessel
Nikolai Kulemin-Nazem Kadri-Joffrey Lupul
Clarke MacArthur-Mikhail Grabovski-Matt Frattin
Frazer McLaren-Jay McClement-Colton Orr/Ryan Hamilton

Carl Gunnarsson-Dion Phaneuf
Jake Gardiner-Mike Kostka
Mark Fraser-Cody Franson

James Reimer
Ben Scrivens

Bruins to watch

Having scored just six goals in their last four contests, its safe to say that all 12 Bruins forwards are on the radar. But for the sake of this preview, lets highlight Milan Lucic again, shall we?

Lucic unquestionably is in a major cold spell and its safe to say that Julien needed to bump him down to the third line, which has been another sore spot for the Black and Gold. The sixth-year forward hasn’t lit the lamp in over a month and that’s probably the least of his concerns. When he struggled to score in the past, Lucic was at least engaging others with his physical presence, and even that hasn’t been seen over the last several games.

Maybe Lucic’s move to the third line will be that wake up call he needs, and perhaps his new compadre’s Rich Peverley and Jordan Caron will also benefit from his presence.

Leafs to watch

We kept an eye on him last game and we’ll certainly keep the spotlight on Nazem Kadri again tonight.

The former first round pick scored the game’s first goal in the Leafs’ victory Saturday and has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his last four games. And after being ridiculed for not living up to his potential from Toronto fans the past few seasons, it looks like he’s found a rhythm as he leads his team in scoring with 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists); good for eighth in the National Hockey League. I guess there’s a reason that Don Cherry keeps praising him on Hockey Night in Canada after all.

After serving a two-game suspension, Joffery Lupul (three goals and one assist in five games this season) returns to the Leafs lineup. We’ll see how he responds after reacting to the Rick Nash hit on Tomas Kopecky via Twitter – one that did not warrant a suspension according to Brendan Shanahan.

Bruins linkage

While Brendan Morrow was traded from Dallas to Pittsburgh yesterday, CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty says the Bruins made a significant offer to acquire the ex-Stars forward. After seeing that, I can only imagine what it will take to get Jarome Iginla in a Black and Gold uniform.

Our friends from Days of Y’Orr somehow got Winnie the Pooh in a retro Pooh Bear Bruins jersey.

Another reminder that SupahFans Streetwear waives their $5 shipping fee when Bruins fans enter ‘DailySupahFans’ as a coupon code at checkout.

Leafs linkage

The folks at Leafs Nation share their five thoughts to start the week.

And The National Post explains how Kadri went from potential bust to the Leafs’ top scorer.

Tweets of interest

Shameless plug alert. In case you missed it yesterday here are details on The Harp and Bruins Daily teaming up to give away a $25 gift card. Be sure to use #DailyHarp in your tweets.

As part of our 1k follower promotion, @theharpboston is giving away a $25 gift card to one of our followers. More details in next tweet…

— Bruins Daily (@BruinsDaily) March 24, 2013

 

All followers who are currently following us are eligible and those who start to follow BruinsDaily will be entered for @theharpboston gc

— Bruins Daily (@BruinsDaily) March 24, 2013

 

And tell us why you deserve @theharpboston $25 gift card using #DailyHarp. The winner will be announced day after we hit 1k mark.

— Bruins Daily (@BruinsDaily) March 24, 2013