Last week, the Bruins recalled Malcolm Subban from Providence while sending Niklas Svedberg down on a conditioning loan. Since then, speculation has been rampant on when the younger Subban would get his first career NHL start.

With Pernell Karl Subban and the rest of the Montreal Canadiens in town, having Malcolm get the start against his brother and the Bruins’ hated rivals would be quite the storyline.

But, even after his 39-save performance in last night’s 2-1 win over the New York Islanders, head coach Claude Julien should ride the hot hand and give Tuukka Rask his 11th consecutive start – even though his career numbers are not good against the Canadiens (3-12-3, 2.76 goals against average, .902 save percentage).

On Boston.com: Rask steals the show vs. Isles

The last time the Bruins ran into this dilemma against the Habs came in the second meeting of the season where Rask started the night before in a disastarous 6-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Finnish goalie was pulled midway through that thumping in Toronto and Svedberg – who got the start the next night – filled in for the remaining five and a half periods of the Canadian road trip. Julien admitted that this was the plan, but many fans questioned him for adjusting his lineup and not starting his No. 1 net-minder the following night in which the B’s fell 5-1 at the Bell Centre.

Rask did get the start the next week against the Habs in a 2-0 loss. He had a solid performance, but the rash of injuries and inconsistencies caught up to the Bruins on that night.

Enter the fourth and final meeting of the season tonight at the TD Garden. Rask is playing his best hockey of the season and is regaining his Vezina Trophy winning form from a year ago. The Bruins are healthy again and starting to creep up the standings.

The Habs, meanwhile, trail the Red Wings and Lightning by two points in the Atlantic Division standings. They’ve gotten the best of the Black and Gold in each of the three meetings this season.

These two teams could very well meet again in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Malcolm Subban will still get a chance to showcase his talents in the NHL level even if he doesn’t get the start tonight.

The only way Rask can try to solve the Habs before the playoffs begin is to get the start tonight. He may be 0-2-2 in back to backs this season (2.55 GAA, .916 SV% in those games), but the NHL’s third star in January gives the Bruins the best chance to win on a nightly basis.

Rask should be given that opportunity again, not because of his career numbers against Montreal, but because he deserves it. And he hopes to quiet the critics in the process if he’s given the nod.

“Nobody’s told me otherwise, so I’m sure I’m playing,” Rask told reporters after he was asked about his status vs. the Habs. “But, you know, if I play, hopefully we’ll get a win so I don’t have to answer your questions again.”

[Looking for last minute Bruins-Habs tickets? Check out TicketMonster for prices and catch the last meeting of the regular season tonight at TD Garden]

Bruins’ projected lines

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Craig Cunningham

Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask or Malcolm Subban

Habs projected lines

Max Pacioretty-David Desharnais-Dale Weise
Alex Galchenyuk-Tomas Plekanec-Brendan Gallagher
Jacob De La Rose-Lars Eller-Christian Thomas
Michael Bournival-Manny Malhotra-Jiri Sekac

Andrei Markov-P.K. Subban
Nathan Bealieu-Sergei Gonchar
Alexei Emelin-Mike Weaver

Carey Price
Dustin Tokarski