Bruins at Red Wings preview

BRUINS (31-11-8) at RED WINGS (21-22-8)
7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, NESN, NHL.TV

The Bruins are 7-1-0 in their past eight games and have earned at least one point in 20 of the past 21 (16-1-4). Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask is 18-0-2 in his past 21 games (20 starts) with a .942 save percentage and a 1.59 goals-against average.
Detroit is coming off a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers after having won its previous two games. Jimmy Howard will start against Boston ahead of Petr Mrazek, who is 4-1-1 in his past seven games (six starts). Howard has lost his last four starts, during which he has a save percentage of .861.

Players to watch

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron has 20 points (12 goals, eight assists) in his past 14 games. Bergeron leads Boston with 22 goals is third with 44 points.
Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser has scored three goals in his past two games, including two in the loss at Florida.

They said it

"The biggest thing we have going for us is that our top players have also been our best players most nights. Even when our top guys haven't scored, we've had guys step up. We've also got a pretty good goalie backing it all up." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"Petr [Mrazek] has played really well in the last stretch of games, and that's given Jimmy [Howard] a chance to work on some things. We need elite goaltending from both of them if we want to make a run at the playoffs." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on his decision to change goalies

Bruins projected lineup

Danton Heinen -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Ryan Spooner
Tim Schaller -- Riley Nash -- David Backes
Frank Vatrano -- Sean Kuraly --
Austin Czarnik
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Paul Postma
Injured: Noel Acciari (lower body), Kevan Miller (upper body)
Suspended: Brad Marchand

Red Wings projected lineup

Anthony Mantha -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist
Andreas Athanasiou -- Dylan Larkin -- Tyler Bertuzzi
Darren Helm -- Frans Nielsen -- Tomas Tatar
Martin Frk -- Luke Glendening -- Justin Abdelkader
Danny DeKeyser -- Nick Jensen
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: Dominic Turgeon, Luke Witkowski, Xavier Ouellet
InjuredNone

Status report

Marchand will be eligible to return from his five-game suspension on Wednesday when the Bruins play the New York Rangers. … Helm (lower body) took part in the morning skate, but will be a game-time decision.

Stat pack

Pastrnak has four goals and six assists during an eight-game point streak. … Detroit's second line of Larkin, Athanasiou and Bertuzzi has not had a point in the past five games.