Bruins at Stars preview

BRUINS (45-17-10) at STARS (38-28-8)
8:30 p.m. ET; SNE, SNW, FS-SW, NESN, NHL.TV

The Bruins, who clinched a Stanley Cup Playoffs berth on Wednesday and are 8-2-2 in their past 12 games, are six points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Atlantic Division lead and five points ahead of the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs. Boston has two games in hand on Tampa Bay and Toronto.
The Stars, 0-4-2 in their past six games, look to avoid their seventh straight defeat, which would mark their longest losing streak since they were 0-5-2 from Oct. 25-Nov. 8, 2014.
Dallas is four points behind the Anaheim Ducks for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference with eight regular-season games to play.

Players to watch

Bruins forward Ryan Donato, who signed with Boston on Sunday after starring for Harvard and the United States at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, has four points (two goals, two assists) in his first two NHL games.
Stars center Tyler Seguin has 19 points (10 goals, nine assists) in his past 14 games, needs one goal for his first 40-goal season in the NHL and is three points shy of 500 in the League.

They said it

"You've got to learn. You've got to be a sponge. You've got to soak up all the information you're getting. There's still a learning curve where you've just got to do whatever you can and learn as fast as you can." -- Bruins forward Ryan Donato
"He's taken the biggest leap that I've been associated with in 10 years." -- Stars coach Ken Hitchcock on center Tyler Seguin

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Riley Nash -- David Pastrnak
Ryan Donato -- David Krejci -- Danton Heinen
Tim Schaller -- Sean Kuraly -- Noel Acciari
Brian Gionta -- Tommy Wingels -- Jordan Szwarz
Nick Holden -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Kevan Miller
Paul Postma -- Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: None
Injured: Rick Nash (upper body), Zdeno Chara (upper body), Jake DeBrusk (upper body), Patrice Bergeron (foot), Charlie McAvoy (knee), David Backes (leg laceration), Torey Krug (upper body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Brett Ritchie
Mattias Janmark -- Radek Faksa -- Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel -- Devin Shore -- Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie -- Jason Dickinson -- Curtis McKenzie
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis -- Greg Pateryn
Marc Methot -- Stephen Johns
Kari Lehtonen
Mike McKenna
Scratched: Dillon Heatherington, Julius Honka, Gemel Smith
Injured: Ben Bishop (knee), Martin Hanzal (back), Jason Spezza (back)

Status report

Krug will be a game-time decision. … McKenzie will play on the second power-play unit; 13 of his 24 AHL goals this season have come with the man advantage.

Stat pack

Marchand has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in his past 10 games. … Benn has eight points (four goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak.