The Boston Bruins would be a pretty good team if hockey games were only 20 minutes long. Unfortunately for the Black and Gold, hockey games last 60 minutes and lately they have been struggling to finish the job.

In their seven home games, the Bruins have scored the first goal in five of them. Yet, they only have a 1-4-0 record to show for that. That will need to change tonight when the Black and Gold host the Detroit Red Wings, who are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Sharks last night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Bruins will be without rookie blue-liner Colin Miller, who is out with a lower-body injury. Zach Trotman will take his place alongside Zdeno Chara on the Bruins top defensive pair.

Detroit, meanwhile, has been hit hard by injuries. Veterans Johan Franzen, Kyle Quincey and Brad Richards are all on injured reserve. Still, the Red Wings still have a solid veteran core including Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, and combined with their young talents like Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist, still pose a threat to the Black and Gold.

Gametime: 7:00 P.M.
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins 7-7-1 (15 points), Red Wings 8-7-1 (17 points)
Location: TD Garden

Bruins projected lines

Frank Vatrano-David Krejci-Loui Eriksson
Matt Beleskey-Patrice Bergeron-Brett Connolly
Brad Marchand-Ryan Spooner-Jimmy Hayes
Zac Rinaldo-Joonas Kemppainen-Tyler Randell

Zdeno Chara-Zach Trotman
Dennis Seidenberg-Kevan Miller
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask
Jonas Gustavsson

Red Wings projected lines

Justin Abdelkader-Henrik Zetterberg-Pavel Datsyuk
Tomas Tatar-Dylan Larkin-Gustav Nyquist
Riley Sheahan-Andreas Athanasiou-Teemu Pulkkinen
Drew Miller-Luke Glendening-Darren Helm

Niklas Kronwall-Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser-Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith-Alexey Marchenko

Petr Mrazek
Jimmy Howard

Matchup to watch: Bruins D vs. Red Wings Top-6

The Bruins D will have their hands full against Gustav Nyquist and the Red Wings’ top-6. (Photo by Joe Makarski/Bruins Daily)

With Datsyuk playing his first game of the season last night, the Red Wings have a little more stability on their top two lines. Skating with Henrik Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader, the Russian forward fired four shots on goal in a little over 20 minutes of ice time against the Sharks. He is two goals away from 300, and if the Bruins aren’t careful, he can accomplish that milestone tonight.

That isn’t the only concern facing the Bruins D. With Miller out and Trotman in, the Chara-Trotman pairing might have to matchup against the young and exciting trio of Tomas Tatar, Dylan Larkin and Gustav Nyquist. That unit has a combined 32 points in 16 games this season.

For a young defensive unit that has struggled with consistency this season, the Bruins, even with Dennis Seidenberg returning from injury, will have their hands full again.

Storyline to watch: Can the Bruins respond to adversity?

Captain Zdeno Chara hopes to get the Bruins back on track with a win over the Red Wings. (Photo by Joe Makarski/Bruins Daily)

The Bruins escaped a bit of a blow yesterday when Brad Marchand was only fined $5,000 for punching Gabriel Landeskog after a high hit from the Avalanche captain. Landeskog received a two-game suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety for his collision with Marchand.

That was the only bit of good news for the Black and Gold over the last 48-plus hours. Following the disappointing loss against the Avs — and still lingering from a tough four-game slate last week where they went 1-3-0 — head coach Claude Julien and team President Cam Neely voiced their concerns during yesterday’s practice in Wilmington.

“It’s not acceptable…what’s going on right now. We have to take, I guess, the responsibility that goes along with it,” Julien said to the press after Friday’s practice at Ristuccia Arena (via CSNNE.com). “We have to better. Ten minutes of good hockey is not enough to win in this league. We’re getting good starts, but we’re not sustaining that part of our game through the whole 60 minutes. We can talk about a bunch of different things, but it all boils down that.”

“You’re going to make mistakes; it’s a game of mistakes. But our mistakes seem to end up in the back of our net at the inopportune time,” added Neely. “We’ve got to do a much better job of eliminating mistakes…mental mistakes.”

For a Bruins team in transition, many pundits, including your’s truly, expected an up and down season. But there’s no question that the blunders and sloppy finishes are plaguing this squad. We’ll see whether or not that trend will continue tonight.