CANUCKS (24-24-6) at BRUINS (27-23-6)
1 p.m. ET; SN, NESN, NHL.TV
Canucks team scope
Forward Loui Eriksson will face his former team for the first time since he signed with the Vancouver Canucks as an unrestricted free agent last July 1. Eriksson played in 224 games for the Boston Bruins the past three seasons and had 147 points (62 goals, 85 assists). In his first season with Vancouver, he has 11 goals and 11 assists in 54 games. "Of course this season hasn't been the best for me but I'm still happy we're pretty close to the playoffs," Eriksson told the Vancouver Sun on Friday. "It was the same thing when I came to Boston. Getting to learn new things and new teammates and settled into the city as well, it takes some time." The Canucks are looking for consecutive wins after ending a four-game losing streak with a 3-0 victory at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. The Canucks, who are 7-16-3 on the road this season, are six points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Coach Willie Desjardins said goaltenders Ryan Miller and Jacob Markstrom will split the weekend back-to-back (the Canucks play at the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday). Miller's next win will be his 355th and move him past Rogie Vachon for 19th place on the NHL all-time list.
Bruins team scope
Defenseman Zdeno Chara expects to play after missing the Bruins' 6-3 win against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday because of an illness. "We decided with the training staff it would probably be best to stay away and not risk any possible injuries or any more spread it through the locker room," Chara said after practicing Friday. "So it's been good yesterday and progress from yesterday to today. So it should be good to go for tomorrow." The Bruins will try to earn a second straight victory for new coach Bruce Cassidy, who was promoted from assistant coach after Claude Julien was fired on Tuesday. Boston has been chasing consistency all season and would like to duplicate its effort from Thursday. "We do know we play games like that. But ... for some reason the second games aren't as strong as the first ones," center David Krejci said. "So we have to make sure to come out hard again, play a full 60 minutes, just like we did [Thursday]. I think we had a good practice today and [are] obviously feeling good about ourselves." Boston leads the Philadelphia Flyers by one point for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference and trails the Toronto Maple Leafs by one point for third place in the Atlantic Division. Goaltender Tuukka Rask has started 13 straight games, but Cassidy said Rask and Anton Khudobin will split the weekend games (the Bruins host the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday).
Canucks projected lineup
Daniel Sedin -- Henrik Sedin -- Markus Granlund
Alexandre Burrows -- Bo Horvat -- Jannik Hansen
Jayson Megna -- Brandon Sutter -- Loui Eriksson
Jack Skille -- Michael Chaput -- Reid Boucher
Alexander Edler -- Troy Stecher
Luca Sbisa -- Christopher Tanev
Ryan Miller
Jacob Markstrom
Scratched: Philip Larsen, Ben Hutton
Injured: Derek Dorsett (neck), Erik Gudbranson (wrist), Anton Rodin (knee), Sven Baertschi (concussion)
Bruins projected lineup
Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Backes
Peter Cehlarik -- David Krejci -- David Pastrnak
Matt Beleskey -- Ryan Spooner -- Frank Vatrano
Tim Schaller -- Dominic Moore -- Riley Nash
Zdeno Chara -- Brandon Carlo
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Jimmy Hayes, Joe Morrow, John-Michael Liles
Injured: Austin Czarnik (lower body)
Status report
Baertschi did not travel to Boston and instead returned to Vancouver. ... Cehlarik could make his NHL debut.
Who's hot
Henrik Sedin had two assists against the Blue Jackets after going four games without a point. ... Bergeron is on a six-game point streak with four goals and eight assists in that span. He also one assist shy of 400 in his NHL career. ... Marchand has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) during a six-game point streak.
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