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At the Rink blog

At the Rink: Red Wings at Bruins

Monday, 12.29.2014 / 1:27 PM

By Matt Kalman - NHL.com Correspondent / 2014-2015 At the Rink blog

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2014-2015 At the Rink blog
At the Rink: Red Wings at Bruins

BOSTON -- Boston Bruins forwards Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic will not play against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday at TD Garden, according to Bruins coach Claude Julien.

Julien would not elaborate on the nature of either player's injury but he classified each as day-to-day. Neither player practiced Sunday. They were injured in a 6-2 road loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

Bergeron, who scored in the first period Saturday but did not play the final 13:14 of the third, leads the Bruins with 27 points (seven goals, 20 assists). Lucic has six goals and 17 points.

With Bergeron out, center David Krejci skated with Bergeron's usual linemates, Brad Marchand and Reilly Smith, during the morning skate.

"Yeah, I think I've played with probably every other forward except for [Krejci]," Smith said. "So you know he's a talented player and he creates a lot of space. So it should be fun."

The Bruins have gone long stretches of the season without some of their best players, including Krejci and defensemen Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug. But Lucic and Bergeron had played in all 36 games.

"I think it's a good test for us and we have to get back to playing as a team, and if you lose a couple individuals, no matter how skilled they are, you still have to win as a team," Smith said. "So that's definitely the focus tonight."

The Bruins had an intense 45-minute practice that focused on execution and assertiveness Sunday. Boston has won four times in its past 10 games (4-4-2).

"Yeah, commitment. That's the area [that needs the most improvement]," Julien said. "I think commitment. There's a couple things. We need to be a little bit harder, we need to be more committed and just do the things that we need to do to win hockey games. It's not so much one area where we're weak, it's just our game as a whole needs a little bit more. We need to be hungrier and a little bit harder."

The Red Wings have won their past two games, including an overtime victory on the road against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Detroit coach Mike Babcock is confident it won't take the banged-up Bruins lightly.

"I don't think that changes a whole bunch with us," Babcock said. "We understand they're not happy because they didn't play as good as they wanted to last game. It didn't go as good. Any team that gets beat, they want to respond, no different than if we lost. So we understand where we're at and who we're playing."

Here are the projected lineups:

RED WINGS

Henrik ZetterbergPavel DatsyukJustin Abdelkader

Tomas TatarRiley SheahanTomas Jurco

Johan FranzenDarren HelmGustav Nyquist

Drew MillerLuke GlendeningStephen Weiss

Jonathan EricssonNiklas Kronwall

Kyle QuinceyDanny DeKeyser

Brendan SmithBrian Lashoff

Jimmy Howard

Petr Mrazek

Injured: Jakub Kindl (elbow), Jonas Gustavsson (shoulder)

Scratched: Daniel Cleary, Joakim Andersson

BRUINS

Brad MarchandDavid KrejciReilly Smith

Chris KellyCarl SoderbergLoui Eriksson

Daniel PailleGregory CampbellJordan Caron

Matt LindbladCraig CunninghamSeth Griffith

Zdeno CharaDougie Hamilton

Matt BartkowskiDennis Seidenberg

Torey KrugKevan Miller

Tuukka Rask

Niklas Svedberg

Injured: Adam McQuaid (thumb), Patrice Bergeron (undisclosed), Milan Lucic (undisclosed)

Scratched: Zach Trotman

Status update: Lashoff is likley to be in the lineup after five straight healthy scratches. ... The Bruins lost forward Matt Fraser on waivers to the Edmonton Oilers. Lindblad was recalled from Providence of the American Hockey League to replace Fraser. Caron was called up Sunday.

Who's hot: Zetterberg has three goals and three assists during a four-game point streak. ... Kelly has points in five of his past six games, with one goal and five assists during that span.

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