Two of the main priorities that face the Boston Bruins entering the busy stretch of games this week; improving on the power play and establishing better results at TD Garden. Those priorities will be front and center tonight as the Bruins, fresh off a 5-2 loss to the Rangers in a game where they allowed two shorthanded goals, welcome the injury-plagued Buffalo Sabres for the first of their five matchups in 2016-17.

After Saturday’s debacle against the Rangers, the Bruins hope to cure some of their struggles on the power play, which comes into Monday’s contest second to last in efficiency rate converting just 7.9 percent of their chances. With the pair of goals allowed on the power play, the Bruins have scored an equal amount of goals on the man advantage as they have allowed shorthanded goals (three).

Looking for consistency from his power play units, head coach Claude Julien made some personnel changes during Monday’s morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena. David Backes bumps up to the first power play unit with Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Spooner up front along with point men Torey Krug and David Krejci. Austin Czarnik replaces Colin Miller at the second point spot joining John-Michael Liles at the blue-line with David Pastrnak, Matt Beleskey and Brad Marchand completing the unit.

Tonight marks the first of a five-game in seven-day stretch for the Black and Gold with two games at home. With the Montreal Canadiens looming tomorrow night at the Bell Centre, the Bruins are hoping to come away with two points and snap a three-game losing streak on Causeway Street.

Gametime: 7:00 p.m.
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins 6-5-0 (12 points), Sabres 5-4-2 (12 points)
Location: TD Garden

Bruins projected lines

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak
Ryan Spooner-David Krejci-David Backes
Matt Beleskey-Riley Nash-Austin Czarnik
Tim Schaller-Dominic Moore-Noel Acciari

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

Tuukka Rask
Zane McIntyre

Sabres projected lines

Matt Moulson-Ryan O’Reilly-Kyle Okposo
Zemgus Girgensons-Sam Reinhart-Tyler Ennis
Marcus Foligno-Johan Larsson-Brian Gionta
Will Carrier-Derek Grant-Nick Baptiste

Josh Gorges-Rasmus Ristolainen
Dmitry Kulikov-Casey Nelson
Jake McCabe-Cody Franson

Robin Lehner
Anders Nilsson

Tonight’s storylines

– Another sore spot the Bruins will try to fix during their busy week? Secondary scoring. Aside from the top line of Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak, the Bruins have seen minimal contributions from the second and third lines. Combined, the second and third forward units have combined to score five of the team’s 26 goals and half of the Bruins goal total has come from the aformentioned top line. Granted, the second line of Spooner, Krejci and Backes has been together in just one game since the former St. Louis Blue returned from an elbow procedure and the third line of Beleskey, Czarnik and Riley Nash looked pretty good against the Rangers. Given this slate, they’ll need their middle two lines to contribute sooner rather than later.

– Tuukka Rask was the first goalie off the ice indicating that he will get the start in the first of two sets of back-to-backs for the Bruins this week. This will mark Rask’s fifth straight start since returning from a lower-body injury where he’s gone 4-1-0 in that span. Given the busy schedule, Zane McIntyre will likely get a start or two during the week. McIntyre last appeared in his first career start on October 26 in a 5-2 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.