BOSTON – The Bruins will be aiming for their third straight win as they continue their five-game homestand on Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche at TD Garden. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the 7 p.m. ET puck drop on NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub:
- Per coach Jim Montgomery, Linus Ullmark is back to full strength and will back up Jeremy Swayman against the Avs.
- Brandon Carlo and Matt Poitras, both of whom suffered upper-body injuries during the last road trip, were back at practice on Wednesday but remained question marks for Thursday’s game with the Avalanche. “[Both will] take morning skate,” Montgomery said during an optional on-ice session on Thursday at Warrior Ice Arena. “I don’t really have a definitive lineup for you because I don’t know where they’re at until they go through morning skate. If they do go through morning skate and everything’s good, they’re options.”
- Trent Frederic, who left Wednesday’s practice early, told the media following morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena that he is fine and good to go for the matchup with Colorado.
- Derek Forbort, out since Dec. 3 with a lower-body injury, also returned to practice on Wednesday but will remain out of the lineup against Colorado. “Ran into a couple setbacks along the way, so kind of had to restart,” said Forbort. “Had to build it brick by brick. Took a lot longer than I thought but we’re here.”
- Since the Bruins and Avalanche met just over a week ago in Denver – a 4-3 overtime win for the Avs on Jan. 8 – Colorado has won four of five and are coming off a 7-4 win over Ottawa on Tuesday night. The Avs are on the fourth game of a five-game road trip, which also included a win in Toronto (5-3) and a loss to Montreal (4-3). “There's a balance between your offense and defense,” said Montgomery. “I didn't think we did a very good job of that, especially the first period in Colorado…we got better. We need to create more Grade-A scoring chances. We didn't create enough, and we didn't make it hard enough on [goalie Alexandar Georgiev]. Now, they're playing four and six nights, hopefully [Nathan] MacKinnon won’t play 29 minutes, [Cale] Makar] 32, and [Mikko] Rantanen] 27 like they did last time.”
