Need to Know: Bruins vs. Flames 

BOSTON –– The Boston Bruins are back on Causeway Street.

Thursday’s 7 p.m. matchup against the Calgary Flames opens a five-game homestand for the B’s after returning from a two-week road trip.

It is the second of two regular-season meetings between the teams; the Bruins faced the Flames on Dec. 29 at Scotiabank Saddledome and fell 2-1 in overtime before winning their next two games out West.

“I thought Calgary was a really good step [in] the right direction. That was basically the message today – we need to go back to that foundation we built during that game. We kind of lost [it] a little bit last game,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “We need to go back to our game. That’s it.”

Sturm adjusted some of his forward lines during Thursday’s morning skate, namely moving Marat Khusnutdinov and David Pastrnak to the first line with Elias Lindholm, and Alex Steeves and Morgan Geekie to the third line with Fraser Minten.

Geekie leads Boston with 25 goals, but has not scored in seven games. The 27-year-old forward is looking to break out against the Flames while skating with his new linemates.​

“Just try not to overthink it. I had a couple posts in Vancouver; could’ve gone either way. Just been fighting it a bit,” Geekie said. “I haven’t really gotten a chance to play with [Minten]. Obviously, me and [Steeves] played together for a little while. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun. A new look for us, but I think we all complement each other in different ways, and we’ll just try to play well on both ends of the rink.”

Wait, There’s More

• Joonas Korpisalo will start in net for Boston. The goaltender last played on Dec. 27 and made 30 saves against the Buffalo Sabres. Korpisalo has a 3.60 goals against average and a .882 save percentage through 15 games.
• Pastrnak extended his point streak to three games on Tuesday in Seattle; the 29-year-old forward has seven points (four goals, three assists) in that stretch, and eight points in the last five games. Pastrnak leads the team with a total of 48 points (19 goals, 29 assists) through 38 games this season.
• Henri Jokiharju will skate in his second game since coming back from injury on Tuesday. The defenseman had 16:07 of ice time in his return after missing the 16 previous games. Jokiharju is on the second pair with Nikita Zadorov.

Opposing View

• The Flames are playing in the second game of a back-to-back; they fell 4-1 to the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday at Bell Centre. Joel Farabee – who played NCAA hockey at Boston University – scored the lone goal for Calgary, and netminder Dustin Wolf made 31 saves. The Flames have lost their last three games.
• Rasmus Andersson leads all Calgary defensemen with 27 points (nine goals, 18 assists) through 43 games; that also ranks second on the team behind Nazem Kadri, who has 32 points (eight goals, 24 assists). Andersson is on the first pair with Kevin Bahl and the first power-play unit.
• Blake Coleman leads the Flames in goals with 13 through 43 games this season. The 34-year-old forward has been on the second line with Mikael Backlund and Matt Coronato. Coleman has three points (two goals, one assist) in the last five games.