The last time the Boston Bruins were at Canadian Tire Centre, they suffered an embarrassing 7-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators (8-5-4).

Amid a stretch in which they had dropped seven of eight games, it felt then that the Bruins had hit rock bottom. It turns out, though, that was a simply a launching point.

The Bruins have collected seven straight wins since that fateful game 17 days ago, and look to continue their streak tonight as they return to where it all started.

“Those stretches, those games, kind of help you,” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm told reporters in Ottawa Thursday morning. “They’re not pretty, but that kind of helped us to get out of it a little bit. It showed us that we can’t play that way. It was just the start of something good. But we definitely don’t want to repeat that tonight.” 

To avoid a similar result, the Bruins must rely on the defensive structure that has been the foundation of their recent success, and was also completely absent in that miserable loss, where they allowed Ottawa to score six-straight unanswered goals, including four on the penalty kill.

“It’s still on our minds, for sure,” said Mark Kastelic. “It wasn’t a pretty game by any means, but I feel like we’re a much different team than the last time we came here eight games ago.”

Boston proved that much last week when they defeated Ottawa in overtime at TD Garden for what was at the time its fifth win in a row. To double down and defeat the Senators on their home ice will only drive that point home even further.

“We wanted to show them right away that this is not the team that we are, playing here and losing 7-2,” Sturm said. “I think we did a good job in our building. Now, we’ll try to do the same thing tonight.”

Projected Bruins Lines:

Geekie – Khusnutdinov – Pastrnak

Steeves – Zacha – Arvidsson

Jeannot – Minten – Kastelic

Viel – Kuraly – Eyssimont

Zadorov- McAvoy

H. Lindholm – Peeke

Lohrei – Jokiharju

Korpisalo

Swayman

Last Time Out:

David Pastrnak scored twice and reached a major career milestone to lead the Bruins to a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden for their seventh win in a row

Milestone Night From David Pastrnak Leads Bruins Over Leafs For Seventh Straight Win

The Opponent:

As strong as the Bruins have looked lately, the Senators are right on their heels, just two points behind them in the Atlantic Division standings.

Ottawa has collected points in six straight games, and is coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night, doing so without team captain Brady Tkachuk in the lineup.

Tkachuk has missed more than a month of action after undergoing a procedure on his hand and will once again be out tonight, as will defenseman Thomas Chabot due to an upper-body injury. But even without Tkachuk, the Senators have kept pace by receiving contributions from up and down their lineup.

Drake Batherson leads the team in scoring with 17 points in 14 games. Tim Stützle and Shane Pinto share the team lead in goals with eight each. Pinto signed a four-year, $3o million contract extension with the Senators on Thursday morning.

Like the Bruins, the Senators are one of the highest scoring teams in the league this year. They’re averaging the seventh-most goals per game of any team with 3.35, but are also among the worst at defending in their own zone, where they rank 29th and have allowed 3.59 goals per game.

Rather than former Bruins’ goalie Linus Ullmark, Leevi Meriläinen will man the crease for Ottawa against Boston, making just his fourth appearance of the season as he enters with a 3.71 goals-against average and a .871 save percentage.

How To Watch:

Puck drop between the Bruins and Senators is set for 7:08 p.m. EST. The game can be seen on NESN and streamed on NESN 360 or ESPN + for out-of-market viewers. Country 102.5 FM will carry the radio broadcast, which will be produced by 98.5 The Sports Hub.

FOLLOW ANDREW FANTUCCHIO ON 𝕏: @A_FANTUCCHIO
FOLLOW BOSTON HOCKEY NOW ON 𝕏 AND FACEBOOK