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Miller defensemen set to return as Bruins host Wings

January 24, 2017, 2:01 PM ET [23 Comments]
Ty Anderson
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The desperate Boston Bruins are even more desperate. They are the desperate-iest bunch to ever desperate. Already finding themselves in must-win territory (it’s still January), the Bruins will look to put an end to a four-game losing streak when they play host to the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday.

The Bruins have tried everything with this group to this point. Head coach Claude Julien has tried to find ways to invigorate his team with different mental approaches, different lineups, and different coaching tactics. Monday was a relatively new one for the team, though, with nearly an hour-long video session that highlighted all the ways that the B’s have come up short this season.

“Sometimes you have to go back to the drawing board,” Julien said. “You’ve seen enough of different things and we decided that maybe a little eye-opening moment could be what we need.

While opting not to relay Julien’s direct message to the team to the media, B’s captain Zdeno Chara did shed light on what the video session entailed for a group that’s lost eight of their last 11 games.

“Showing details that we were doing good early on in the season when we were having success and little things we got away from,” Chara, the club’s captain since 2006, said of the video focus. “It’s a game of little details, little things and we need to make sure we do them right.”

“We need to play with desperation. We know where we’re at.”

Where the Bruins are at, remains a tricky thing to truly assess. The Bruins have finally been bumped out of the playoff structure and sit in ninth place in the Eastern Conference (which is where they have finished after the 82-game grind in each of the last two seasons) heading into today’s games, but are just five points from last place in the East, and have played five (Islanders), four (Sabres), and two (Lightning) more games than the teams currently in a three-way tie in the East’s basement.

“Desperate times require desperate measures.”

Two plusses for the Bruins in this one come with the return of the Miller defensemen, as both Colin (out for the last six games with a lower-body injury) and Kevan (out for the last four games because of a concussion and then a virus) will draw back into action and likely on the B’s third pairing. That will align John-Michael Liles and Joe Morrow as the healthy scratches for the Black and Gold.

“We’ve seen some good sides to his development,” Julien said of Colin (the Bruins are 19-12-3 with No. 6 in the lineup this year). “I think when you look at the way he can skate, the way he can carry the puck out of your own end, the way he moves it, he’s got a lot of great attributes.”

Tuukka Rask, who was lifted from the second period of Sunday’s loss to the Penguins because of a migraine and then absent from Monday’s practice for the same reason, is expected to get the start in the B’s net. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Rask, who took a Roman Josi slapshot to the throat on Jan. 12 and has stopped just 94 of 108 shots thrown his way in between that and the migraine.

Overall, the 29-year-old has 22 wins and a .920 save percentage in 39 games this season.

Detroit counters with Jared Coreau. The towering Coreau stopped 18-of-19 in an overtime loss to the Rangers in his last game, and has been solid as a darkhorse in the Wings crease this season. The Bruins did chase Coreau in their last head-to-head, however, with three goals on eight shots.

This is as close to a must-win as you can get this time of year, and this is also a should-win for the B’s, too, as the Wings come to town without both Dylan Larkin and Thomas Vanek.

It’s the third of four meetings between the Original Six rivals this season.

Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal magazine, and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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