Need to Know: Bruins at Golden Knights

HENDERSON, Nev. - The Bruins will be playing with some added motivation on Sunday night.
Not only are the Black & Gold aiming to avoid their second straight setback for the second time in three games, but they are also looking to avenge their loss to the Vegas Golden Knights six days ago at TD Garden - a defeat that snapped Boston's NHL-record, 14-game home winning streak to start the season.

"This group, we said we never want to lose two in a row. Just get back on the horse. I think we played a pretty decent game there against Arizona. We just couldn't get the puck out of our net and score enough to win that game," Hampus Lindholm said of the Bruins' last-minute loss to the Coyotes on Friday night. "It will be a good challenge for us to bounce back."
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was pleased with his club's effort during Saturday afternoon's practice at Lifeguard Arena - the training facility of the Henderson Silver Knights, which is Vegas' AHL affiliate - noting that the players appeared to be skating with some extra jump as they prepare to get back on track again on Sunday evening.
"I do because of the way they practiced," Montgomery said when asked if he believed his team would have some extra incentive to secure two points against the Golden Knights. "They practiced like they want to be good. It's a little bit of a thing for us is we don't want to lose two in a row. Last night, we lost a game so [Sunday] night's important to us."

Missing for Maintenance

David Krejci, who briefly left Friday's game in Arizona, did not practice on Saturday. Montgomery said the centerman was sitting out for a maintenance day.
"We just want to make sure that he's best prepared for [Sunday]," said Montgomery.
Boston's bench boss added that the only lineup change he is certain of right now is that Linus Ullmark will start in goal against the Golden Knights.
"Not that we know of," Montgomery said when asked if any lineup tweaks were coming. "I don't know if we're gonna make a change or not. We've got to see how everybody shakes out, especially Krech, how he feels [Sunday]."

On the Offensive

While the Bruins rank second in the league in goals per game (3.92) and third in overall goals (102), only 11 of those tallies have come from defensemen. Hampus Lindholm leads the way with four, while Charlie McAvoy and Connor Clifton have contributed two goals apiece. Matt Grzelcyk, Derek Forbort, and Jakub Zboril all have one each.
McAvoy's goal on Nov. 23 in Florida is the last Bruins' marker from a blue liner, a span of six games.
"Just getting some more shots on net," Lindholm, who hasn't scored since Nov. 3, said of how to create more from the back end. "You get the puck on net and good things happen. That's just the way the league works now. It's hard enough to get an opportunity. If you have it, take it, activate.
"I think we've been doing a good job. We have a lot of guys who can score and put the puck in the back of the net, so we just have to keep harping on it. The biggest thing maybe is we need to have that first shot, take it because good things happen."
Montgomery said that at times, he will opt to pair his blue liners together for offensive purposes, but that ultimately the pairings will be based upon what is best to accentuate their individual strengths.
"We're always gonna try to put our players in the best situation to have success, whether that's [Lindholm and McAvoy] playing together or it might be Grizzy and Mac playing together in an offensive situation, might be Lindholm and Brando playing together for a defensive situation," said Montgomery. "We're always gonna try to put our players in the best position for their skill set."

Wait, There's More

• Montgomery's opinion of the way Friday night's game ended - with a controversial non-icing call leading directly to Arizona's winning goal with 14 seconds remaining - had not changed following Saturday's skate. "The linesman has a judgement call to make," he said. "The only thing that we wish is that the judgement call had been made at the [faceoff] dot, not when the puck crossed the goal line because it makes it hard on [Jeremy Swayman] and [Derek Forbort] to make a clean play because they're thinking it's icing because the call hasn't come at the dot. That's the one issue."
• David Pastrnak has now scored in four straight and eight of his last nine games for a total of 10 goals over that span. "He's just uber talented," said Montgomery. "He finds different ways to score every night. He creates scoring chances all the time 5-on-5 and 5-on-4. They're sitting on him 5-on-4 and you see him go up top, sometimes you see him go back post. He's hard to check…he has better hockey sense than everybody else. His vision, he knows where he wants to go, he sees an opening before a defensive player sees where he's gonna be going. He has a little bit of a half second advantage to hit that."
• Since Monday's matchup in Boston, the Golden Knights (20-8-1) have gone 1-1-0 with a 5-1 setback to the Rangers on Wednesday and a 2-1 overtime victory against Philadelphia on Friday night. Defenseman Shea Theodore will not play on Sunday night, while centerman Jack Eichel is considered day-to-day, per Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy. Blue liner Alex Pietrangelo remains out due to a personal issue.

Saturday's Practice Lineup

FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Jake DeBrusk
A.J. Greer - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall - Charlie Coyle - Trent Frederic
Nick Foligno - Tomas Nosek - Craig Smith
DEFENSEMEN
Hampus Lindholm - Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril
GOALIES
Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman