Canadiens give Budaj start against potent Bruins

Thursday, 01.30.2014 / 1:06 PM

By Matt Kalman - NHL.com Correspondent / 2013-2014 At the Rink Blog

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BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins have scored six goals in each of their past three games.

Boston's recent offensive hot streak, however, hasn't changed the Montreal Canadiens' plans to start backup goaltender Peter Budaj against the Bruins at TD Garden on Thursday (7 p.m. ET, NHLN-US).

Carey Price started the previous eight games and Budaj has made two relief appearances since his last start Jan. 8.

"We prepare a schedule monthly, and even after that we go week-to-week, and me and Stephane [Waite, goaltending coach] we talk about it because we need to maintain the energy, physically and mentally, to Carey Price," Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said after his team's morning skate. "And we've got four games this week in six days, so this is important for us to make sure Carey is sharp and make sure he's sharp physically, mentally. And Carey played a lot of hockey lately so we decided to go with Peter."

The Bruins will counter with Tuukka Rask in net and try to duplicate their recent offensive efforts as best they can against the Canadiens.

"It's about making sure we keep playing the way we've been playing," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. "Keep moving our feet and sticking to the system. But it feels like we really … we've been taking what's been given to us lately and put the puck on net and get some rebounds and go from there."

Here are the projected lineups for both teams:

BRUINS

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Daniel Paille - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Gregory Campbell - Chris Kelly - Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara - Johnny Boychuk

Matt Bartkowski - Kevan Miller

Torey Krug - Dougie Hamilton

Tuukka Rask

Chad Johnson

Injured: Dennis Seidenberg (knee), Adam McQuaid (leg)