The Bruins are one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference and one point behind the Detroit Red Wings for third place in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins and Red Wings have three games remaining; the Flyers have four games left.
Kevan Miller was injured in the first period of the Bruins' 6-5 win at the St. Louis Blues on Friday and missed the 6-4 loss at the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. The Bruins were down 6-0 against the Blackhawks before rallying late.
"Obviously you want to be out there with your guys," said Kevan Miller, who has five goals and 18 points in 68 games this season. "It's tough to watch for sure when you don't play. I'm excited to get back in there."
Colin Miller was recalled Tuesday from Providence of the American Hockey League. He has three goals and 15 points in 39 games with the Bruins but hasn't played in the NHL since Feb. 14. The 23-year-old is waiver exempt so the Bruins wanted him to go to Providence and get more playing time. He had four goals and 12 points in 19 AHL games.
"Maybe just got a bit of confidence back," he said. "Obviously when you're playing a lot more, you're playing a lot of minutes, instead of looking to get back in the flow every game. It was good. It was good to go down there and get my legs back under me."
The Hurricanes will play their first game since they were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in a 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. Carolina has three games remaining.
"We've compete hard all year. So I don't know why we'd change that," coach Bill Peters said. "We've got 79 games under our belt. We've been pretty much happy with our effort. Obviously there's one or two times in the year things catch up to you, but I expect us to be able to finish strong and worry about ourselves and try to get a win here tonight."
Here are the projected lineups:
HURRICANES
Joakim Nordstrom - Jordan Staal - Patrick Brown
Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Riley Nash
Sergey Tolchinsky - Elias Lindholm - Chris Terry
Nathan Gerbe - Jay McClement - Brad Malone
Jaccob Slavin - Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin - Brett Pesce
Ron Hainsey - Ryan Murphy
Cam Ward
Eddie Lack
Injured: Phillip Di Giuseppe (upper body), Andrej Nestrasil (upper body), James Wisniewski (ACL)
Scratched: Michal Jordan
BRUINS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Loui Eriksson
Matt Beleskey - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Frank Vatrano - Ryan Spooner - Lee Stempniak
Landon Ferraro - Noel Acciari - Jimmy Hayes
Zdeno Chara - Kevan Miller
Torey Krug - Adam McQuaid
John-Michael Liles - Colin Miller
Tuukka Rask
Jonas Gustavsson
Injured: Chris Kelly (broken femur), Dennis Seidenberg (lower body), Brett Connolly (lower body)
Scratched: Tyler Randell, Zach Trotman, Joe Morrow
Status report: Peters said he wanted to get a look at Lindholm at center this season but waited for the Hurricanes to be eliminated from playoff contention before making the move. ... Seidenberg practiced Monday but Julien said he is not ready to return. ... Connolly skated on his own Tuesday morning.
Who's hot:Skinner has goals in two straight games and in three of the past five. ... Krejci has two goals and seven points in the past four games.
