The Boston Bruins will look to carry their momentum from Sunday night after they knocked off the Buffalo Sabres 2-0 when they host the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden tonight. The Bruins hold a four-point lead over the Senators for the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference (with a game in hand).

The Bruins are coming off their emotional victory over the Sabres two nights ago where the first line answered the bell for the first time in a while getting goals from David Krejci and Nathan Horton in the “dirty area”

The injury-plagued Senators have done a remarkable job over their last 10 games, going 6-2-2. Ottawa is not the greatest road team (6-7-3), but they always give the B’s a run for their money.

Points are at a premium this late in the season and the B’s are looking to come out of their shell of mediocrity. The Black and Gold must come out flying and avoid their sloppy play out of the gate. They’ll need to set the tempo by being physical and getting to the dirty areas.

Gametime: 7 p.m.
Location: TD Garden
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins (22-8-4, 48 points) Senators (19-10-6, 44 points)

Bruins’ projected lines

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

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference-Matt Bartkowski

Anton Khudobin
Tuukka Rask

Senators’ projected lines

Mike Hoffman-Kyle Turris-Daniel Alfredsson
Guillaume Latendresse-Mika Zibanejad-Jakob Silfverberg
Colin Greening-Jim O’Brien-Chris Neil
Matt Kassian-Zack Smith-Erik Condra

Patrick Wiercioch-Sergei Gonchar
Marc Methot-Eric Gryba
Chris Phillips-Andre Benoit

Robin Lehner
Ben Bishop

Bruins to watch

Since he’s been red-hot, let’s keep tabs on Bruins Daily Player of the Week Nathan Horton. The first-line right-winger has scored in three consecutive games and it’s safe to assume that he’s responded nicely since Claude Julien called him out publicly. The Bruins need Horton to light the lamp at will because he is a very important piece to the 2013 puzzle. He now has 11 goals on the season and is contributing nicely at a time where the Black and Gold desperately need scoring with 14 games left in their regular season.

Anton Khudobin, who earned his second career shutout against Buffalo, gets rewarded with his second straight start (presumably) after being the first goalie off in the morning skate. This is the second time this season that the Russian goalie starts in consecutive games. Things didn’t turn out too good the first time around as Khudobin was pulled in the Bruins’ 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs last Saturday; just two days after turning away 27 shots in a 2-1 victory against this same Sens squad back on March 21.

Senators to watch

Defenseman Sergei Gonchar is one of the best playmakers on this team. He has 20 assists on the year and can still do a number of things at age 38. The struggling Bruins defense must keep him in check, because he is dangerous offensively when he creates space.

Speaking of veterans, Daniel Alfredsson is a topic of discussion whenever these two teams meet, but how can you ignore him? He has eight goals and 12 assists on the year, but his leadership and hockey IQ are what makes him an irreplaceable player.

Bruins linkage

Days of Y’Orr is on “Jagr watch” after ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun revealed that Jaromir Jagr will be traded from the Dallas Stars before tomorrow’s trade deadline (also see “Tweets of Interest”)

Don’t forget to get your tickets for our Bruins/Habs viewing party on April 6.

Senators linkage

Dave Young of SB Nation writes about how this week is very important in Ottawa.

Ken Warren of Senators Extra on how the Senators are trying to deal with trade deadline anxiety.

Tweets of interest

First and foremost, here’s LeBrun’s tweet on the Bruins being the frontrunners in the Jagr sweepstakes (take this with a grain of salt after the Jarome Iginla saga).

Told the Dallas Stars have decided to trade Jaromir Jagr. My sense is Boston leads the list of front-runners

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) April 2, 2013

Our own Mark Marino weighs in on another potential trade target, Ryane Clowe.

With zero goals and a minus-4 rating thru 28 games this season, Ryane Clowe is on the trading block, not part of a “sweepstakes”. Please.

— Mark Marino (@_MarkMarino) April 2, 2013