Another day, another “most important game of the season” for the Boston Bruins.

This time, they’ll be playing that game sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference after the Maple Leafs leapfrogged the Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division following their 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets in Columbus. Even worse for the Bruins – the Islanders (Saturday’s opponent) are now two points in back of them for that final wild card spot in the East.

First thing’s first, the Bruins welcome a Tampa Bay Lightning club that sits five points in back of the Black and Gold. Both teams enter tonight’s game carrying a three-game losing streak.

The Bruins are no strangers to adversity this season, even under interim coach Bruce Cassidy. Up until their three-game skid, the B’s have bounced back from their three prior losses during the Cassidy era.

In desperate times, the battle-tested Bruins will need to show that desperation tonight. Otherwise, they may find themselves on the outside looking in on the final wild card spot entering the weekend. Both the Leafs (home vs. New Jersey) and Islanders (at Pittsburgh) are also in action tonight.

Gametime: 7:00 pm
TV/Radio: NESN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins 38-29-6 (82 points), Lightning 34-29-9 (77 points)
Location: TD Garden

Bruins projected lines

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

Zdeno Chara-Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid
Colin Miller-Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin

Lightning projected lines

Ondrej Palat-Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn-Vladislav Namestnikov-Jonathan Drouin
Luke Witkowski-Gabriel Dumont-J.T. Brown
Adam Erne-Yanni Gourde-Joel Vermin

Victor Hedman-Jake Dotchin
Jason Garrison-Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn-Andrej Sustr

Peter Budaj
Andrei Vasilevskiy

Tonight’s storylines

– With just three goals in their last two games, Cassidy is once again forced to make adjustments to his lines. The only line still intact from Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Senators is the trio of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Backes. Drew Stafford moves up from the third line to join the duo of David Krejci and David Pastrnak, while Noel Acciari moves up to line three with Frank Vatrano and Ryan Spooner. Matt Beleskey, who spent the last two games on the second line, moves to the fourth line with Dominic Moore and Riley Nash.

– The recent three-game skid has also forced Cassidy to start Tuukka Rask for the third time in four nights. This will mark the first occasion in 2016-17 where Rask has made all three starts in a four-night span. Frustrated by his team’s lack of goal support and costly late game breakdowns, Rask may have to steal a game or two down the stretch. But for those who still doubt Rask’s importance to the club, just take a look at his play during the first three months of the year when the Bruins had problems finding the back of the net on a consistent basis. Sure, he hasn’t been as consistent since the turn of the calendar year, but without him during that October-December stretch, one can argue that any discussion of postseason hockey with nine games left in the regular season would have been moot.