Preview: Bruins at Canadiens

BRUINS (7-5-0) at CANADIENS (10-1-1)
7:30 p.m. ET; SNE, RDS, NESN, NHL.TV

Bruins team scope

Forward Noel Acciari did not make the trip after sustaining an undisclosed injury in the third period of the Boston Bruins' 4-0 home win against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday. Forward Jimmy Hayes, defenseman Joe Morrow and backup goalie Zane McIntyre were the only players to take to the ice for an optional morning skate at Bell Centre. Goalie Tuukka Rask improved to 7-1-0 with a 1.74 goals-against-average and .941 save percentage after making 32 saves Monday for his second shutout in five games since returning from an undisclosed injury that sidelined him for three games. Rask, who moved ahead of former teammate Tim Thomas for third place in franchise history in shutouts with 32, hopes to make his sixth straight start in Montreal, but said that is not his decision to make. "It's one of those games that I don't think any player really wants to miss because it is a big rivalry and they're a great team," he said Monday. "So [I] definitely don't want to miss that, but we'll see."

Canadiens team scope

The Montreal Canadiens lead the NHL with 21 points. Montreal won its first nine games last season, but ended up out of the picture for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Captain Max Pacioretty said it's important to focus on what's at hand, noting that the Canadiens had a strong effort in their first game against the Bruins, a 4-2 win at TD Garden on Oct. 22. "I think more so this year than ever we're just taking things one day at a time," Pacioretty said after the morning skate in Brossard, Quebec. "We've seen what worrying about the future or the past can do to your mental state of mind as a player in Montreal, so one game at a time. Boston's a big rivalry, a division game. I think games like this tell you what kind of character you have and we matched up against them very well last game. They played strong, but we were able to close them off." Goalie Carey Price has won each of his seven starts this season, including a 34-save effort in the Montreal Canadiens' 5-4 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. The four goals were the most Price has allowed during his personal 10-game winning streak, which is the longest in the NHL since he had 10 straight wins from April 5 to Oct. 24, 2015, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Ryan Spooner -- David Krejci -- David Backes
Matt Beleskey -- Riley Nash -- Austin Czarnik
Tim Schaller -- Dominic Moore -- Jimmy Hayes
Zdeno Chara -- Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug -- Adam McQuaid
John-Michael Liles -- Colin Miller
Tuukka Rask
Zane McIntyre
Scratched:Joe Morrow
Injured:Noel Acciari (undisclosed), Kevan Miller (hand), Anton Khudobin (goalie)

Canadiens projected lineup

Paul Byron -- Alex Galchenyuk -- Alexander Radulov
Max Pacioretty -- Tomas Plekanec -- Brendan Gallagher
Daniel Carr -- David Desharnais -- Andrew Shaw
Phillip Danault -- Torrey Mitchell -- Brian Flynn
Alexei Emelin -- Shea Weber
Andrei Markov -- Jeff Petry
Nathan Beaulieu -- Greg Pateryn
Carey Price
Al Montoya
Scratched:Sven Andrighetto, Joel Hanley
Injured:Artturi Lehkonen (upper body), Zach Redmond (broken foot)

Status report

Hayes has no points in 10 games and has been a healthy scratch for the past two. "When you're in a little bit of a scoring drought, you've got to find ways to get around the net," Hayes told the Boston Globe on Tuesday. "You look at some of the goals from [Monday] night, a lot of them were from right around the net." ... Carr, who was recalled from St. John's of the AHL last Wednesday, will be in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 15. He has been a healthy scratch for eight games with Montreal, including six straight, before he was assigned St. John's after he had one assist in the Canadiens' first two games. Carr had two goals and one assist in three games with the IceCaps.

Who's hot

Pastrnak had a goal and an assist Monday. He has scored in each of his past four games, including three straight since serving a two-game suspension. Marchand has two goals and two assists during a four-game point streak. He leads the Bruins with 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 12 games. ... Galchenyuk has three goals and three assists in five games. Radulov has one goal and three assists in four games. Weber's plus-15 leads the NHL.