In one of the biggest Bruins games of the season, the Black and Gold will be without their leading goal scorer. Suspended two games by the league this morning, the Bruins will be without the services of Brad Marchand for the final two games of the 2016-17 season, two games very meaningful to the Bruins.

With a playoff spot secured, the Bruins are simply playing for seeding in their final two games. With both the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs having a game in hand, the Bruins will most likely have to wait until both teams wrap their season up Sunday afternoon. However, regulation victories over the Senators on Thursday and the Capitals on Saturday will at least secure a top-3 spot in the Atlantic Division.

Since snapping their untimely four-game losing streak in Brooklyn back on March 25, the Bruins have won six straight and are catching fire at the right time. Whether or not they can carry their red-hot play into the postseason remains to be seen.

Gametime: 7:00 p.m.
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins 44-30-6 (94 points), Senators 42-27-10 (94 points)
Location: TD Garden

Bruins projected lines:

Drew Stafford-Patrice Bergeron-David Backes
Frank Vatrano-David Krejci-David Pastrnak
Sean Kuraly-Ryan Spooner-Matt Beleskey
Riley Nash-Dominic Moore-Noel Acciari

Zdeno Chara-Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid
John-Michael Liles-Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin

Senators projected lines:

Mike Hoffman-Kyle Turris-Mark Stone
Viktor Stalberg-Derick Brassard-Alexandre Burrows
Tom Pyatt-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Tommy Wingels
Clarke McArthur-Chris Kelly-Ryan Dzingel

Dion Phaneuf-Ben Harpur
Chris Wideman-Mark Borowiecki
Fredrik Claesson-Jyrki Jokipakka

Craig Anderson
Mike Condon

Tonight’s storylines:

– Things have gone south for the Senators since the last time these two teams met on March 21st. With wins in two of their seven since their last trip to Boston, the Senators are now in jeopardy of finishing the season as one of the two Eastern Conference wild card teams. Injuries have played a huge role in the Senators’ struggles of late. The Sens got more bad news on the injury front this afternoon. After suffering an injury late in Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, Erik Karlsson will miss tonight’s contest and is now labeled day-to-day. Already without Cody Ceci, the Bruins will look to take advantage of a depleted Senators blueline.

– There’s no doubt Marchand has been the spark to the Bruins’ offense. Matched up against a team that has given the Bruins fits this season without their leading scorer will be no easy task. Despite the Bruins managing four goals Tuesday night after Marchand was issued a game misconduct, goals will be more difficult to come by without the services of No. 63. The Bruins will look to their depth tonight and hope that secondary scoring will be enough for Bruce Cassidy and company to notch two important points.