Bruins at Hurricanes preview

BRUINS (20-12-4) at HURRICANES (14-15-5)
5 p.m. ET; SN1, FS-CR, NESN, NHL.TV

The Bruins are 6-2-0 in their past eight, including a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators at TD Garden on Saturday. Patrice Bergeron, who missed 16 games with a rib/collarbone injury, had four points in his return.
The Hurricanes will be without Jordan Staal, who sustained an upper-body injury in a 3-0 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. Staal was playing in his second game following a five-game absence because of a concussion.
The Hurricanes, who are 2-6-1 in December, will finish a five-game homestand.
Carolina will wear the
Hartford Whalers uniform
for the first time since the team relocated in 1997.

Players to watch

Bruins forward David Pastrnak has 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in his past nine games.
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"[Bergeron] is a guy that you can throw out there any time and you know he's going to get the job done. Is he going to score two goals every night? Of course not, but he's going to play against the other team's best players and maybe force their team out of their rotation as well. We've been playing well lately without him, but he just gives an emotional boost too." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"Just keep going. No one feels sorry for us, and we certainly don't feel sorry for ourselves. We can't. We've got a game against a really good team. We just have to look forward to it." -- Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- Danton Heinen
Joakim Nordstrom -- David Krejci -- David Pastrnak
Sean Kuraly -- Colby Cave -- David Backes
Ryan Donato -- Noel Acciari -- Chris Wagner
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Charlie McAvoy
John Moore -- Steven Kampfer
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Scratched: Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson
Injured: Jake DeBrusk (concussion), Urho Vaakanainen (concussion), Kevan Miller (throat), Zdeno Chara (knee)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Jordan Martinook -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland -- Victor Rask -- Brock McGinn
Andrei Svechnikov -- Lucas Wallmark -- Justin Williams
Warren Foegele -- Clark Bishop -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Calvin de Haan -- Justin Faulk
Trevor van Riemsdyk -- Dougie Hamilton
Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Janne Kuokkanen
Injured: Haydn Fleury (concussion), Jordan Staal (upper body)

Status report

The Hurricanes recalled Bishop and Kuokkanen from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Saturday.

Stat pack

Marchand has 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in his past eight games and Krejci has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his past nine. … Hamilton has an NHL-best shot on goal streak of 199 games.