At the Rink: Bruins at Panthers

Boston Bruins center David Krejci has missed 13 games because of a knee injury; whether that comes to an end Saturday against the Florida Panthers remains to be seen.

Krejci skated with this teammates at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., and stayed out on the ice for about an extra 25 minutes, according to the team's official Twitter feed. Neither he nor coach Claude Julien was prepared to say yes or no to his availability against the Panthers.

"Today, I made another step forward, did some battle drills, so I'll talk to the trainers, and we'll see," Krejci said. "Some part of it is mental as well. Once I feel good, I've got to make sure my head feels good."

The Bruins are five points ahead of the Panthers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference, and two points in front of the Ottawa Senators. This is the first of three games between the two teams in the final 11 of the season.

Forward Jaromir Jagr called this a Game 7 for the Panthers after practice Friday. It is clearly an important one for Florida to remain in the postseason chase.

"You play in a lot of important games throughout your life and you learn not to get too pepped up for it," Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad told Fox Sports Florida. "You can't get too nervous."

Here are the projected lineups:

BRUINS

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Milan Lucic - Ryan Spooner - David Pastrnak

Chris Kelly - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Max Talbot

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Torey Krug - Adam McQuaid

Dennis Seidenberg - Matt Bartkowski

Tuukka Rask

Niklas Svedberg

Scratched: Jeremy Smith, Brian Ferlin

Injured: David Krejci (knee), Brett Connolly, (finger), Kevan Miller (shoulder)

PANTHERS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Aleksander Barkov - Jaromir Jagr

Brandon Pirri - Nick Bjugstad - Brad Boyes

Jussi Jokinen - Dave Bolland - Jimmy Hayes

Shawn Thornton - Derek MacKenzie - Scottie Upshall

Brian Campbell - Aaron Ekblad

Willie Mitchell - Erik Gudbranson

Dmitry Kulikov - Alex Petrovic

Roberto Luongo

Dan Ellis

Scratched: Vincent Trocheck, Tomas Kopecky, Steven Kampfer, Sam Brittain

Injured: Al Montoya (groin)

Status report: Hayes and Thornton are returning to the lineup for the Panthers, according to Fox Florida, while Trocheck and Kopecky will be scratched to make room. Trocheck is second among Florida forwards in shot attempts percentage (SAT%) relative to the team's average, while Thornton is second-worst (to Kopecky).

Who's hot: Spooner has five goals and 11 points in 13 games since being recalled from the American Hockey League when Krejci was injured. Julien said Spooner will not come out of the lineup if Krejci is ready. … Huberdeau has 10 points in nine games since Jagr arrived in South Florida. Pirri has eight goals in that span.