Preview: Bruins at Hurricanes

BRUINS (17-14-3) at HURRICANES (14-11-7)
7:30 p.m. ET; NESN, FS-SC, NHL.TV

Bruins team scope

This is the second of four consecutive road games for the Boston Bruins, who are 10-5-3 away from TD Garden after a 3-1 victory at the Florida Panthers on Thursday. The Bruins are concluding their seventh of 14 back-to-back sets; they are 1-5-0 in the second games. Frank Vatrano scored Boston's first goal in the win at Florida in his first NHL game this season. He had surgery on Sept. 26 to repair torn ligaments in his left foot. "It's obviously good to get your confidence right away, especially getting a goal pretty early," Vatrano told the team website. "So for me, it's just about keeping it simple and working hard and bringing energy." David Pastrnak also returned to the lineup after missing two games with an injured elbow. Tuukka Rask made 29 saves and could start again. Boston defeated Carolina 2-1 in a shootout at TD Garden on Dec. 1.

Hurricanes team scope

The Carolina Hurricanes will be trying to extend their home point streak to 10 games. Carolina is 8-0-1 in its past nine games at PNC Arena and is coming of a 3-1 road win against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. Forward Jeff Skinner scored his team-leading 13th goal and defenseman Justin Faulk scored his sixth to put Carolina ahead 2-0 after the first period. The Hurricanes could have put the game away in the second period but failed to score on four power-play chances. "I would have liked to get more. I don't like letting teams hang around," coach Bill Peters told the team website. "We've got to execute better. I didn't think the urgency was very high amongst the group, and I didn't think the execution was very good because of it." Carolina has the NHL's top-ranked penalty kill (91.5 percent).

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Ryan Spooner -- David Krejci -- David Backes
Riley Nash -- Austin Czarnik -- Frank Vatrano
Anton Blidh -- Dominic Moore -- Jimmy Hayes

Zdeno Chara -- Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug -- Adam McQuaid
Kevan Miller -- Colin Miller

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Noel Acciari, Tim Schaller, Joe Morrow
Injured: John-Michael Liles (concussion), Matt Beleskey (knee)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner -- Victor Rask -- Derek Ryan
Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen -- Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom -- Jay McClement -- Viktor Stalberg

Ron Hainsey -- Justin Faulk
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Noah Hanifin -- Matt Tennyson

Cam Ward
Eddie Lack
Scratched:Ryan Murphy, Klas Dahlbeck, Andrej Nestrasil
Injured: Bryan Bickell (illness)

Status report

Neither team held a morning skate after playing Thursday. … The Hurricanes activated Lack from injured reserve on Wednesday, and he dressed as Ward's backup in Buffalo.

Who's hot

Krug had two assists against Florida and has 10 in his past 14 games. ... Skinner has four goals and two assists in his past five games. Ryan has eight points in his past seven games.