Bruins at Lightning preview

BRUINS (14-9-4) at LIGHTNING (21-7-1)
7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SUN, NESN, NHL.TV

This is the first meeting between the Lightning and Bruins since the 2018 Eastern Conference Second Round. Tampa Bay won the best-of-7 series 4-1.
The Lightning are 9-2-0 in their past 11 games and have scored at least five goals in four straight games.
Goalie Louis Domingue will try for his fourth consecutive win for Tampa Bay; he's 3-0-0 with a 2.95 goals-against average and .882 save percentage in his past three starts.
Goalie Tuukka Rask will start for Boston; he's 2-1-2 with a 1.97 GAA and .934 save percentage in his past five starts.
The Bruins will try to avoid their third straight loss; they have scored two goals or fewer in eight of their past nine games.

Players to watch

Bruins forward David Pastrnak has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past four games.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has 24 points (five goals, 19 assists) in his past 11 games, with points in nine of 11.

They said it

"We just have to simplify. When you're not scoring you have to do other things the right way. We have to be better defensively as a group. We can't worry about winning games with four or five goals. We have to win with two." -- Bruins forward Brad Marchand
"We're clicking on a lot of cylinders now but we are continuing to improve and get better. This is a division team we're familiar with. Both teams are trying to keep up with the standings. It's going to be an intense game and our goal is to get the two points." -- Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Colby Cave -- David Pastrnak
Joakim Nordstrom -- David Krejci -- Jake DeBrusk
Danton Heinen -- Sean Kuraly -- David Backes
Ryan Donato -- Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson -- Noel Acciari
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
John Moore -- Steven Kampfer
Jeremy Lauzon -- Matt Grzelcyk
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Scratched: Chris Wagner, Gemel Smith, Charlie McAvoy
Injured: Patrice Bergeron (upper body), Zdeno Chara (lower body), Kevan Miller (larynx cartilage), Urho Vaakanainen (concussion)

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Steven Stamkos -- Yanni Gourde
Tyler Johnson -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- J.T. Miller
Mathieu Joseph -- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Dan Girardi
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Louis Domingue
Edward Pasquale
Scratched: Slater Koekkoek, Danick Martel, Adam Erne
Injured: Anton Stralman (upper body), Andrei Vasilevskiy (left foot fracture)

Status report

McAvoy was activated from injured reserve but is not expected to play after missing 20 games because of a concussion ... Kampfer returns to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past two games. … The Bruins claimed Smith, a center, off waivers from the Dallas Stars on Thursday. ... Boston placed Miller on injured reserve and sent defenseman Connor Clifton to Providence of the American Hockey League. … Erne was back on the ice skating after missing four games with an illness.

Stat pack

Marchand has one goal in his past 10 games. … Point has 18 points (11 goals, seven assists) in his past 11 games. … Stamkos has five points (three goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak.