Carlyle not using Bruins rematch as measuring stick

BOSTON -- The last time the Boston Bruins saw the Toronto Maple Leafs, Randy Carlyle was behind Toronto's bench for just his second game as coach and his first in front of the home crowd.

Boston didn't treat Carlyle's Leafs any different than they had Ron Wilson's Leafs previously -- the Bruins improved to 5-0-0 against Toronto with a 5-4 win.

Over the last several weeks, Carlyle has had a chance to mold the Leafs more into the image of one of his teams, according to Boston coach Claude Julien.  

"His system, it's his system," said Julien after his team's morning skate in preparation for Monday's game against Toronto at the TD Garden. "You just have to look at Anaheim play when he was there and that's a lot of what they're trying to do. I'm not going to get into details and specifics, but that's what we see from Randy's approach versus Ron's.

"Let me put it this way: Ron was a very aggressive coach and Randy -- not that he's not aggressive -- but also spends a lot of time making sure the defensive approach is there, as well."

It's a long shot that Toronto will qualify for the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, so an opportunity to avoid a season-series sweep at the hands of one of the Eastern Conference's powers might be the Leafs' last chance to win a playoff-like game. It also could provide a way for Toronto to gauge how far it has come under Carlyle, but the coach isn't looking at this game that way.

"I think it's the chance to play against the Stanley Cup champions. I don't look at it any other way," said Carlyle. "What we've tried to do is focus on each game and one game at a time -- and I know it's an old sports cliché and you guys are probably tired of hearing it, I'm probably tired of saying it -- but the reality is that you're not going to be judged by one game. I don't think we're in a position to say we're using this game as a measuring stick. I think what we're trying to say is we have a template that we're trying to create that we have to play to. And I'll let other people do the judging of that after."

Here are the projected lineups for both teams:

BRUINS
Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jordan Caron
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot - Chris Kelly - Brian Rolston
Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara - Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference - Johnny Boychuk
Greg Zanon - Adam McQuaid

Tim Thomas will start in net, with Marty Turco the backup.
 
MAPLE LEAFS
Clarke MacArthur - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Carter Ashton - Mikhail Grabovski - Matt Frattin
Joey Crabb - Dave Steckel - Tim Connolly
Jay Rosehill - Matthew Lombardi - Colby Armstrong

Carl Gunnarsson - Dion Phaneuf
John-Michael Liles - Mike Komisarek
Jake Gardiner - Luke Schenn

James Reimer will be in net, with Jonas Gustavsson the backup.