Troiani Rink Report

The Boston Bruins have won seven straight games, so it makes sense that head coach Marco Sturm would keep the forward lines and defensive pairings intact when they face the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

The last time the Black and Gold lost a game was a 7-2 beatdown at the hands of the Senators on Oct. 27. Since that humiliating loss, the Bruins have ripped off seven straight wins and enter the matchup with a two-point division lead over Ottawa.

The Bruins have been a streaky team this season. They opened the 2025-26 campaign with a three-game winning streak, then lost six in a row, followed by the seven-game heater. The losing streak seemed to help shake off the cobwebs and force Boston to snap out of the non-competitive play they displayed in Ottawa last month.

“Those stretches, those games they kind of help you,” Sturm told reporters in Ottawa, per team-provided audio. “They’re not pretty, but they help us to get out of it a little bit. It showed us that we can’t play that way. It was the start of something good, but we definitely don’t want a repeat of that.

“It started when they came to our building (on Nov.6). Right away, we wanted to show them that this is not the team that we are; coming in here and losing 7-2. I think we did a good job in our building. Now we have to do the same thing tonight.”

Boston defeated Ottawa 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden with Joonas Korpisalo making 20 saves in the win. The former Senator will start against his former club. Korpisalo has won his last three starts, and posts a .885 save percentage and a 3.24 goals-against average across the seven games he’s started for the Bruins.

Across the ice, the Senators will be without defenseman Thomas Chabot, who left Ottawa’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. Leevi Merilainen is expected to get the start in net.

Puck drop from Canadian Tire Centre is slated for 7 p.m. ET on NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for both clubs:

BOSTON BRUINS (11-7-0)
Morgan Geekie — Marat Khusnutdinov — David Pastrnak
Alex Steeves — Pavel Zacha — Viktor Arvidsson
Tanner Jeannot — Fraser Minten — Mark Kastelic
Jeffrey Viel — Sean Kuraly — Michael Eyssimont

Nikita Zadorov — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Andrew Peeke
Mason Lohrei — Henri Jokiharju

Joonas Korpisalo

OTTAWA SENATORS (8-5-4)
David Perron — Tim Stutzle — Drake Batherson
Ridly Greig — Dylan Cozens — Fabian Zetterlund
Michael Amadio — Shane Pinto — Claude Giroux
Kurtis MacDermid — Lars Eller — Nick Cousins

Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub
Tyler Kleven — Jordan Spence
Nikolas Matinpalo — Nick Jensen

Leevi Merilainen

ODDS AND ENDS
Special Teams
Power Play: Boston 25.0%, Ottawa 23.2%
Penalty Kill: Boston 81.2%, Ottawa 67.3%
Penalty Minutes: Boston 195, Ottawa 160

Offense and Defense
Goals Scored: Boston 61, Ottawa 57
Goals Allowed: Boston 59, Ottawa 61

More Bruins: Off the Post: David Pastrnak’s Milestone Lifts Bruins Past Leafs