Less than a week after an embarrassing loss to the Penguins that saw the defending Stanley Cup Champions explode for three third period goals en route to a 5-1 victory in Pittsburgh, the Bruins will have their chance for redemption.

The Penguins lineup will look a little different Thursday night at TD Garden. Penguins star Evgeni Malkin will miss tonight’s game with a lower-body injury. The All-Star, who is tied with teammate Sidney Crosby for second in the league in points with 54 will also miss this weekend’s festivities. This morning he was replaced by Blue Jackets forward and former Boston College Eagle, Cam Atkinson.

The Pens may have the services of Kris Letang this evening as the veteran blue-liner looks to return from a knee injury that has caused him to miss the last five games.

The Bruins are coming off a much needed 4-3 overtime victory Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. A contest that saw Brad Marchand light the lamp twice before David Pastrnak’s overtime tally. The win snapped the Bruins season high four-game losing streak.

With one last contest before the NHL’s All-Star break, the Bruins will look to carry a little bit of momentum into the weekend. However, the Bruins may be without Brad Marchand who has a hearing today with the NHL Department of Player Safety for his trip on Niklas Kronwall Tuesday night. No penalty was assessed to Marchand, but with his deep history, things do not look good for the first-time All Star.

Gametime: 7:00 p.m.
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins 24-21-6 (54 points), Penguins 30-12-5 (65 points)
Location: TD Garden

Bruins projected lines:

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak
Frank Vatrano-David Krejci-David Backes
Matt Beleskey-Ryan Spooner-Riley Nash
Tim Schaller-Dominic Moore-Jimmy Hayes

Zdeno Chara-Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid
Colin Miller-Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask
Zane McIntyre

Penguins projected lines:

Conor Sheary-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Chris Kunitz-Jake Guentzel-Patric Hornqvist
Carl Hagelin-Nick Bonino-Phil Kessel
Tom Khuhnhacki-Eric Fehr-Scott Wilson

Ian Cole-Justin Schultz
Oili Maatta-Trevor Daley
Brian Dumoulin-Chad Ruhwedel

Matt Murray
Marc-Andre Fleury

Tonight’s storylines:

– David Pastrnak’s overtime goal Tuesday night was important in more ways than one. Not only did it snap the Bruins four-game losing streak, the tally also snapped Pastrnak’s career-long 17-game goal drought. It was a goal both the Bruins and Pastrnak desperately needed. Now that the monkey is off his back, Pastrnak hopes he can get back to his scoring ways. With 19 goals in his first 26 games of the season, the Bruins know how dangerous Pastrnak can be when clicking on all cylinders. Pastrnak and his teammates hope that this is the start of another hot streak for the 20 year-old.

– Things have been rough for rookie defenseman Brandon Carlo of late. The talk has been of how Carlo has hit the rookie wall and hasn’t shown the talent and skills he showed through the first few months of his rookie campaign. Carlo’s rough go of it continued Tuesday night and to his defense, he admitted as much to the media following the loss. Carlo had his issues with the Penguins Sunday afternoon in a game where he finished a minus-2.

– It will be interesting to see how the Penguins flow offensively tonight without the services of Malkin. The Penguins lead the league with 3.55 goals per game and much of that is thanks to the production from Malkin and his 22 goals. As they did on Sunday, this time without Malkin, the Bruins will have their hands full with a deep Penguins roster.