Just one day after having their five-game winning streak snapped, the Boston Bruins hit the road against Ottawa Senators.
The Boston Bruins are set to take on the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in the second leg of a back-to-back on Thursday after falling 3-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Wednesday.
Brad Marchand scored twice in the third period to erase a third-period deficit, but Jordan Martinook’s breakaway goal put the Hurricanes back ahead for good late in the third, snapping Boston’s five-game win streak and nine-game point streak.
“It’s great to have an opportunity to bounce back, but regardless of how the previous game goes, you can’t [let it] dictate your next day,” Marchand said. “Otherwise it’s going to affect it. You want to just try to come to the rink, get better, work on things that you can improve upon in the team.”
It’s a quick turnaround as the group looks to get back on track. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery won’t address the media until 5:40 p.m. ET in Ottawa, but it’s likely Matt Poitras will return to the lineup after he was scratched for load management purposes against Carolina.
The other lineup question revolves around the third defensive pair. Parker Wotherspoon and Kevin Shattenkirk have been rotating in alongside Derek Forbort for the past few games, but Montgomery said health, schedule and other factors will be the main determining points for which player starts each night.
“Sometimes it’s a matchup [decision], but we want to keep everybody involved,” Montgomery said on Wednesday. “I don’t necessarily see it as a Wotherspoon/Shattenkirk platoon. It’s just going to be dependent on where everybody’s at.”
The Senators rank last in the Atlantic Division, but have scored four or more goals in five of their last six games. They’re 4-1-1 over that span, and the Bruins are not taking them lightly despite their record.
“Ottawa’s dangerous because they’ve been facing a lot of adversity the entire year,” Montgomery said on Wednesday. “They do have a lot of talent. They’re playing really good, and mathematically they’re not out of the playoffs, but now they’re playing the right way.”
Puck drops at 7 p.m. as Boston tries to start a new win streak.
Five Things to Know About the Senators:
- The Senators have won four of their last six games since ending a five-game losing streak on Jan. 13 against the San Jose Sharks.
- Ottawa has the ninth-best scoring offense in the NHL (3.40 goals per game), but the third-worst scoring defense (3.60 goals allowed per game).
- Tim Stutzle leads the team with 44 points (10 goals, 34 assists) in 43 games. Brady Tkachuk is the leading goal-scorer with 19.
- Joonas Korpisalo has most of the starts in net for Ottawa. He holds a 10-15-1 record with a .889 save percentage and 3.47 goals against average.
- Interim coach Jacques Martin is 7-9-1 since taking over for DJ Smith (11-15-0) midseason.
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