Bruins at Oilers preview

BRUINS (37-11-12) at OILERS (32-21-6)
8:30 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, NESN, NHL.TV

Boston is 9-1-0 in its past 10 games and is one point ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division and NHL standings. It's the second of a four-game road the trip the Bruins started with a 3-1 win at the New York Rangers on Sunday.
The Oilers, who have won two straight games and are 4-1-0 in their past five, are tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division.
Oilers center Connor McDavid will miss his fifth straight game with a left quad injury, and Edmonton also will be without defenseman Oscar Klefbom, who is out 2-3 weeks with a shoulder injury.

Players to watch

Bruins forward David Pastrnak has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past five games. His 42 goals are one behind Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the NHL lead.
Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) during a five-game point streak and leads the NHL with 95 points (34 goals, 61 assists).

They said it

"We're finding ways to win and we kind of have different lines rolling every game. It's a tight race right now and we understand teams that we are playing are fighting for playoff positions and we're kind of getting into that playoff mentality as quickly as possible." -- Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk
"We've been playing really well, we just have to keep it going. All four lines and all three [defense] pairs have been playing really well. We've kind of adopted that next-man up mentality with all the injuries we have, so we'll try to keep it going tonight." -- Oilers defenseman Caleb Jones

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Karson Kuhlman
Anders Bjork -- Charlie Coyle -- Danton Heinen
Joakim Nordstrom -- Sean Kuraly -- Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Jeremy Lauzon
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Scratched: Par Lindholm, John Moore, Anton Blidh
Injured:None

Oilers projected lineup

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Leon Draisaitl -- Kailer Yamamoto
Tyler Benson -- Riley Sheahan -- Josh Archibald
Sam Gagner -- Gaetan Haas -- Alex Chiasson
Jujhar Khaira -- Colby Cave -- Patrick Russell
Darnell Nurse -- Ethan Bear
Caleb Jones -- Adam Larsson
William Lagesson -- Matt Benning
Mike Smith
Mikko Koskinen
Scratched:Evan Bouchard
Injured: Connor McDavid (quad), Joakim Nygard (hand), Kris Russell (concussion), James Neal (foot), Oscar Klefbom (shoulder)
Suspended:Zack Kassian

Status report

Rask will start for the fifth time in his past six games. … Bouchard was recalled from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League on Wednesday but the defenseman will not play. Forward
Markus Granlund
was to Bakersfield.

Stat pack

Bergeron has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak. … Rask is 5-1-0 with a 1.18 goals-against average and .958 save percentage in six games back from a concussion sustained Jan. 14. … Nugent-Hopkins has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his past five games.