At the Rink: Ducks at Bruins

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins should have forward David Krejci in their lineup when they face the Anaheim Ducks at TD Garden on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN-US, TVA Sports PRIME, NESN).

Coach Claude Julien classified Krejci as probable.

Krejci has missed 15 games since sustaining a partially torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee Feb. 20 against the St. Louis Blues. In his absence the Bruins went 8-4-3, but they are 0-3-2 in their past five games.

With seven goals and 26 points in 38 games, Krejci could give a lift to a team that has nine goals in its past five games.

"I felt the last three days were pretty good," Krejci said after the Bruins' morning skate. "Obviously today was just a morning skate, so no contact. But the last two days before, pretty good contact, good practice, so it felt pretty good the last three days. So if I feel pretty good again in the warm-up then I'll be in."

If Julien sticks with the line combinations he used in the morning skate and practices during the week, Krejci will move from center to right wing on a line with center Patrice Bergeron and left wing Brad Marchand. Julien thinks the shift to wing will ease Krejci's return.

"Probably a little less responsibility for now," Julien said. "He's only played half the season. We shouldn't expect him to be our savior. Who knows how he's going to react if he plays tonight or how he's going to be able to help us out. We don't know that. When you've been out that long, the pace at this time of the year is pretty quick and putting him there [right wing] probably takes a little pressure off him in terms of having to do all the dirty work down low and everything else. We'll start him off there and see where it goes, whether it's tonight or the next game. That's our plan right now and that's why you see him on the wing."

Krejci has never played on the wing as a professional, but he's open-minded about the shift.

"I feel like wing is, obviously, it's something new," Krejci said. "But on the other hand … maybe it's a little bit [less] responsibility than the centerman, because centerman has to support the puck all over the ice. And on the wing I have different responsibilities. So other than that not much."

The Ducks have lost their past two games by a combined score of 12 -5. Tightening up their defensive play will be a priority against the Bruins.

"When you're talking about guys that were scoring, it's more about that competitive nature around our net and being able to contain people," captain Ryan Getzlaf said. "We've given up too many goals within the slot area and crease area, so that's something we obviously worked on yesterday. We had a good practice, a good meeting to kind of shore things up and get our mind right."

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau plans to forward Chris Wagner into the lineup. Wagner is from nearby Walpole, Mass.

"Quite frankly, because he's from here didn't really come into the equation," Boudreau said. "We needed a guy we thought with a little more grit, a little more sandpaper to his game to play. And [Wagner], when he has played with us, has done that. So it's a bonus to him that we're in his hometown."

Here are the projected lineups:

DUCKS

Jiri Sekac - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry

Matt Beleskey - Ryan Kesler - Kyle Palmieri

Patrick Maroon - Rickard Rakell - Jakob Silfverberg

Andrew Cogliano - Nate Thompson - Chris Wagner

Hampus Lindholm - Francois Beauchemin

Cam Fowler - Simon Despres

Clayton Stoner - Sami Vatanen

Frederik Andersen

John Gibson

Scratched: Tomas Fleischmann, James Wisniewski, Emerson Etem, Korbinian Holzer

Injured: Tim Jackman (lower body)

BRUINS

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Krejci

Milan Lucic - Ryan Spooner - David Pastrnak

Reilly Smith - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Chris Kelly - Gregory Campbell - Max Talbot

Zdeno Chara - Adam McQuaid

Dennis Seidenberg - Torey Krug

Matt Bartkowski - Zach Trotman

Tuukka Rask

Niklas Svedberg

Scratched: Daniel Paille, Brian Ferlin

Injured: Brett Connolly (finger), Kevan Miller (shoulder), Dougie Hamilton (undisclosed)

Status report: Fowler should return to the lineup after he was scratched against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. ... Connolly skated with the Bruins for the first time since injuring his finger but remains a few weeks away from returning to the lineup. … Hamilton will miss his second game during his indefinite absence.

Who's hot: Perry has a three-game scoring streak; he has three goals and one assist in that span. ... Bergeron has a three-game scoring streak, during which he has two goals and one assist.