Need to Know: Bruins vs. Penguins

BOSTON –– The Boston Bruins are looking to get back in the win column.

After falling 3-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, the B’s will host the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. ET puck drop. It marks the second of three regular-season meetings between the teams; the Bruins beat the Penguins 1-0 on Jan. 11 on home ice.

“They’re very good. I don’t think there’s [any] surprises anymore,” head coach Marco Sturm said of Pittsburgh. “Now, they’ve been very consistent, very good. They have skill, and they have speed. It’s an up-and-down game with them, and you have to play them tight.”

Andrew Peeke will reenter the lineup for the first time since the Olympic break. The 27-year-old defenseman is projected to skate on the third pair with Nikita Zadorov. Henri Jokiharju will draw out.

“Excited to get back in. Help the guys, contribute any way I can,” Peeke said. “Obviously, it’s a fun time right now here in Boston. Just looking to provide the value I believe I can add to the lineup.”

Peeke has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) through 56 games while averaging 19:37 of ice time per night.

“I actually can’t wait to see him, just because it’s his first time in a long time that he had to sit out. I just want to see a response,” Sturm said. “It’s not like he played terrible, we just needed a little bit more. And now it’s his chance again.”

The Bruins have won 10 consecutive games at TD Garden, and are looking to make that 11 on Tuesday. They currently sit in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 71 points.

“We’re in a good spot. We play a unique style that not every team has. We’re tough, physical, we wear teams down,” Peeke said. “We built a rep for ourselves that every time you play the Bruins, it’s not going to be easy. That’s been our way to win a lot of games.”

​Wait, There’s More

• Jeremy Swayman will be in net for Boston. The goaltender last played on Saturday against the Flyers and made 14 saves. Swayman has a 2.89 goals against average and a .903 save percentage through 39 games this season.

• The second line of Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson remains intact. The trio has combined for four points in two games; Arvidsson had two goals against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. Zacha is on the first power-play unit, and Arvidsson and Mittelstadt are on the second.

• Charlie McAvoy enters Tuesday’s matchup on a nine-game point streak. The 28-year-old joins Ray Bourque as the second Bruins defenseman in the last 40 years to record a nine-game point streak. McAvoy has two goals and 10 assists through that stretch. He is skating on the first pair with Jonathan Aspirot and averaging a team-high 24:13 of ice time per night.

Opposing View

• The Penguins are coming off a 5-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena. Ben Kindel, Egor Chinakhov, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and former Bruin Justin Brazeau scored in the victory. Goaltender Arturs Silovs posted a 22-save shutout. Pittsburgh has won two of its three games since returning from the Olympic break; it is in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 75 points.

• Sidney Crosby leads the Penguins with 59 points (27 goals, 32 assists) through 56 games this season. The captain, however, was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday and will miss at least four weeks. The 38-year-old forward suffered a lower-body injury with Team Canada during the Olympics.

• Pittsburgh’s special teams have been a strength this season. The group has the third-best power play in the NHL at 26.8%, and the second-best penalty kill at 84.3%. After Crosby (who has 10 power-play goals), Anthony Mantha and Rust are tied for the most on the team with five each. The first unit is currently made up of Rust, Mantha, Rakell, Erik Karlsson and Evgeni Malkin.