PHILADELPHIA -- Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien said forward Loui Eriksson will be a game-time decision Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Eriksson missed the Bruins game Thursday against the New Jersey Devils after being slashed on the right hand during a game Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"It'll be a game-time decision," Julien said Saturday. "That's what I said [Friday] and that hasn't changed. He'll go for warm-up."
Eriksson is third on the Bruins with 25 points. He had 12 points in 13 games prior to getting hurt against the Penguins.
The Bruins have won two straight; it's the first time since Thanksgiving they have won consecutive games. Julien said it's a coincidence the two straight wins came after Charlie Jacobs was appointed Bruins CEO and said the team's season to that point had been disappointing.
"The two days that we came back from Carolina [a 2-1 shootout loss Jan. 4], I worked on making sure the team was relaxed," Julien said. "That's all it was. He made his comment and we did our work and right now we've got two wins in a row."
To continue that streak Julien said he'd like to see more of the play he saw in the Bruins' 3-0 defeat of the Devils.
"It was good work ethic but also smart work ethic," Julien said. "I always use the term we had layers. At the same time we kept pucks going north and we kept going after the other team. Our skating was there. You always hope the guys' legs are there and we can skate well. If we can skate well today we know what we want to do."
The Flyers, who also have won two straight, will play their first game this season without defenseman Nicklas Grossmann, who will miss about three weeks after sustaining an upper-body injury in Philadelphia's 3-2 overtime win against the Washington Capitals on Thursday. It's expected defenseman Andrew MacDonald, a healthy scratch against Washington, will return to the lineup. MacDonald was paired with Mark Streit at practice.
Here are the projected lineups:
BRUINS
Milan Lucic- Patrice Bergeron - Daniel Paille
Brad Marchand - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Chris Kelly - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson
Jordan Caron - Gregory Campbell - Craig Cunningham
Dennis Seidenberg - Adam McQuaid
Scratched: Seth Griffith, Matt Bartkowski, Simon Gagne, Reilly Smith
Injured: none
FLYERS
Brayden Schenn - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek
Michael Raffl - Scott Laughton - Wayne Simmonds
R.J. Umberger - Sean Couturier - Matt Read
Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Vincent Lecavalier
Andrew MacDonald - Mark Streit
Michael Del Zotto - Luke Schenn
Scratched: Zac Rinaldo, Carlo Colaiacovo
Injured: Kimmo Timonen (blood clots), Nicklas Grossmann (upper body)
Status report: If Eriksson can't play it's likely Smith would replace him. … Svedberg played Thursday against the Devils after Rask had played nine straight. … Mason's start will be his seventh straight.
Who's hot: Lucic had his first two-goal game of the season Thursday against the Devils. He has four points in his past two games. … Schultz had two assists Thursday against the Capitals. It was his first multipoint game since he had two assists for the Minnesota Wild against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 19, 2010.
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