Having lost five of their last six, the Boston Bruins are searching for answers with three games left in the 2013 regular season. They’ll hope to get some of those answers tonight when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at the TD Garden.

It’s no secret that Claude Julien is not happy with his club, and finally had enough with the excuses after Tuesday’s embarrassing 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Instead he’ll be looking for solutions to get the Bruins back on track right before the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“Let’s stay away from excuses because it’s not going to work. Excuses are a lot of BS right now,” Julien said after Tuesday’s loss. “We have to take responsibility and quit hiding behind those excuses, because it’s a load of crap.”

The Lightning are coming off a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night in Tampa. After giving his team the day off yesterday, Julien hopes his squad can take advantage of a team playing their second game of a back-to-back.

Gametime: 7:30 p.m.
Location: TD Garden
TV/Radio: NESN Plus/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins (27-13-5, 59 points), Lightning (18-24-4, 40 points)

Bruins’ projected lines

*Lines subject to change*

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Rich Peverley
Carl Soderberg-Chris Kelly-Jaromir Jagr
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara-Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference-Johnny Boychuk
Wade Redden-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin

Lightning’s projected lines

Martin St. Louis-Steven Stamkos-Teddy Purcell
Alex Killorn-Vincent Lecavalier-Richard Panik
Pierre-Cedric Labrie-Nate Thompson-B.J. Crombeen
Benoit Pouliot-Tom Pyatt-Dana Tyrell

Victor Hedman-Sami Salo
Matt Carle-Eric Brewer
Keith Aulie-Radko Gudas

Ben Bishop
Anders Lindback

Bruins to watch

After scoring his first goal against the Bruins, Wade Redden keeps his spot on the Bruins blue-line for the second straight game. Since Zdeno Chara left Ottawa to come to Boston in the summer of 2006, Redden’s game slipped dramatically – just ask Rangers fans after he signed a massive contract in the summer of 2008. Perhaps his goal is a sign of good things to come for the veteran defenseman, but with a little uncertainty in the playoff roster, Redden will need to build off his performance against Philly. Otherwise, expect Dougie Hamilton to fill out the sixth defensemen spot in the postseason.

How will Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin respond after Tuesday? Considering that they sat on the bench during the second period on – and as an added insult lost power play time to Milan Lucic and Gregory Campbell – the two will look to bounce back quickly. The good news, however, is that they are still skating with Patrice Bergeron, so maybe Marchand and Seguin got the message already.

Lightning to watch

In a season where the Lightning have seen a coaching change and a goaltending carousel, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos continue to stay atop the scoring race.

At 37, St. Louis (58 points) is on pace to capture the Art Ross Trophy making him the oldest player to accomplish that feat if he holds on to the scoring lead in the last two games of the season. It’s a good reason why our own Anthony Travalgia labeled him as a finalist for the Hart Trophy on Left Wing Lock.

With 56 points, Stamkos continues to be a prolific scorer. The 23-year old forward has 29 goals trailing only Alex Ovechkin (31) in the Richard Trophy race given to the league’s top goal scorer. While he’s a minus-7 in 18 career games against the Bruins, Stamkos is averaging a point per game against the Black and Gold tallying 12 goals and six assists. It’s safe to say that he could very well add to those totals against the struggling B’s.

Bruins linkage

Three scouts give their take on what’s currently wrong with the Bruins (James Murphy/ESPN Boston).

The “Traveling Jagr’s” added the Black and Gold to their repertoire (Justin Aucoin/Days of Y’Orr)

Lightning linkage

Raw Charge recaps last night’s victory over the Leafs.

Tweets of interest

David Krejci is pretty blunt about Tuesday’s loss according to Joe Haggerty.

David Krejci: “We’ve had a few wake-up calls this year. Maybe that loss to Philly wasa slap in the face.” #BruinsTalk

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) April 25, 2013

Here’s another example on how powerless the Bruins’ power play really is via @sens_adnan

Hahahaha from @japersrink: power play goals by Alexander Ovechkin: 16. Power play goals by the Boston Bruins: 17.

— Adnan (@sens_adnan) April 25, 2013