Bruins at Lightning preview

BRUINS (44-17-8) at LIGHTNING (48-18-4)
7 p.m. ET; SUN, NESN, NHL.TV

The Lightning, 9-1-1 in their past 11 games with a four-point lead over the Bruins for first place in the Atlantic Division, would assure themselves of the playoffs with a win in regulation or overtime and a Columbus Blue Jackets loss to the Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers loss to the Carolina Hurricanes or New Jersey Devils regulation loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
Tampa Bay would also clinch a playoff berth with a shootout win against the Bruins and a Blue Jackets loss or Flyers loss in regulation.
Boston, 7-2-0 in its past nine games, leads the Toronto Maple Leafs by five points for second place in the Atlantic.
This is the first of three games between the division rivals over the next 17 days; they will play at Boston on March 29 and at Tampa on April 3.

Players to watch

Bruins forward Brad Marchand has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past seven games.
Lightning forward J.T. Miller has nine points (five goals, four assists) in seven games since being acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Feb. 26.

They said it

"We're blue collar, back to our workman-like mentality, kind of the way we were earlier in the year when we had significant players out. The rest of the guys have to find their work boots, their lunch pails and their hard hats and be hard to play against." -- Bruins center David Backes
"This is like a playoff game. This is going to be a fight for our division and it's going to be a good battle. I expect a tight-checking game and good compete from both teams." -- Lightning forward J.T. Miller

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- David Backes -- David Pastrnak
Danton Heinen -- David Krejci -- Rick Nash
Tommy Wingels -- Riley Nash -- Brian Gionta
Tim Schaller -- Sean Kuraly -- Noel Acciari
Nick Holden -- Kevan Miller
Torey Krug -- Adam McQuaid
Matt Grzelcyk -- Brandon Carlo
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Anton Blidh, Paul Postma
Injured:Patrice Bergeron (fractured right foot), Charlie McAvoy (strained left MCL), Anders Bjork (shoulder), Zdeno Chara (upper body), Jake DeBrusk (upper body)

Lightning projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Tyler Johnson -- Nikita Kucherov
Yanni Gourde -- Brayden Point --
Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Adam Erne
Ryan Callahan -- Cedric Paquette -- Chris Kunitz
Victor Hedman -- Jake Dotchin
Ryan McDonagh -- Dan Girardi
Mikhail Sergachev -- Anton Stralman
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Peter Budaj
Scratched: Andrej Sustr, Braydon Coburn, Slater Koekkoek, Cory Conacher
Injured: Ondrej Palat (lower body)

Status report

Chara and DeBrusk each will miss his second consecutive game. ...Palat participated in the Lightning optional skate but is not expected to play.

Stat pack

Pastrnak has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past eight games. ... Vasilevskiy will set the Lightning single-season record with his next win. He has 40 victories, tied with Ben Bishop, who set the mark in 2014-15. ... Stamkos needs two goals to reach 350 in the NHL.