Hurricanes at Bruins preview

HURRICANES (36-23-6) at BRUINS (39-17-9)
7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, TVAS, NESN, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Bruins, who have won three straight and seven in a row at home, are 12-0-4 in their past 16 games, their longest point streak since they went 14-0-4 from Dec. 16, 2017-Jan. 25, 2018. Boston, which last lost in regulation on Jan. 19 (3-2 to the New York Rangers), is one point ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division; Toronto has one game in hand.
The Hurricanes, who look for their longest winning streak since they won seven straight from Feb. 5-March 4, 2010, are 14-3-0 in their past 17 games. Carolina is three points behind the New York Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Players to watch

Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho has six points (three goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak and can become the third player in NHL history to score the winning goal in four straight games, joining Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens (five games) from Feb. 12-26, 1921; and Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators (four) from Jan. 9-16, 2007.
Bruins forward Brad Marchand has 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in his past 13 games.

They said it

"They believe in themselves and what they're doing. That's the No. 1 thing you want. They know when we weren't playing our best, and they know when we get to our game, we have a chance to win. That belief factor is huge and has to continue." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"We've got to work hard to get our goals and get us now to where we feel we're consistently a threat to get a good number of goals. But again, we've got to stick with it and make sure that we don't get away from it, think it's going to be easy." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy

Hurricanes projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Justin Williams
Micheal Ferland -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Martinook -- Brock McGinn
Greg McKegg -- Lucas Wallmark -- Saku Maenalanen
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce -- Justin Faulk
Haydn Fleury -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Warren Foegele
Injured: Calvin de Haan (upper body)

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- Danton Heinen
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Marcus Johansson
Joakim Nordstrom -- Noel Acciari -- Chris Wagner
Peter Cehlarik -- Charlie Coyle -- David Backes
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
John Moore -- Matt Grzelcyk
Jaroslav Halak
Tuukka Rask
Scratched: Steven Kampfer
Injured: Sean Kuraly (concussion), Kevan Miller (upper body), David Pastrnak (thumb)

Status report

The Hurricanes did not hold a morning skate; the Bruins had an optional skate. … Carolina did not name a starting goalie; Halak starts for the first time in three games.

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Stat pack

The longest winning streak in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history is nine games from March 8-27, 1985. … The Bruins record for longest point streak is 23 games form Dec. 22, 1940-Feb. 23, 1941 (15-0 with eight ties).