Jonathan Bernier

Bruins try to shake home woes as Ducks visit

Published Dec. 15, 2016 12:50 p.m. ET

BOSTON -- After securing three of a possible four points on a tough two-game road trip, the Boston Bruins return home Thursday night trying to overcome three trends.

The Bruins, who host the Anaheim Ducks to start a three-game homestand, are just 7-7-0 at home, where poor play caused them to miss the playoffs for the second straight year in 2015-16.

They are also just 1-4-0 on the back end of back-to-back games, and a hard-fought, 4-3 overtime loss in Pittsburgh on Wednesday could make the Thursday night turnaround that much tougher.

Boston also lost its past five meetings with the Ducks, getting only one of a possible 10 points in those games, over the past three seasons.

Before falling in Pittsburgh, the Bruins earned a 2-1 overtime win at Montreal on Monday.

"We played two really tough teams the past two games and we got three points, so we have to be happy with that," said Brad Marchand, who scored in Wednesday's loss, "but we have a big game (Thursday) again and we have to be prepared to have another good game."

The Ducks opened a six-game road trip by playing a solid two periods at Dallas on Tuesday before the struggling Stars came through with five straight goals, four in the third period, for a 6-2 victory.

"I thought we played a pretty good road game up until the third period," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "We did a lot of things right, but we weren't sharp in our execution because we had lots of chances to score in this hockey game. It takes 60 minutes to win a hockey game in the NHL, and we didn't play 60 minutes. We only played 40."

The Ducks came into that game 6-1-1 in their previous eight games and winners of three straight but fell to 5-6-4 (three straight losses) on the road in their attempt to stay at or near the top of the Pacific Division despite losing as many games as they have won (15-10-5).

The Bruins, who went into overtime in six of their past nine games, have lost four of their last five, going 1-3-1. Boston (16-12-3) scored two goals or less in 21 of its 31 games, including all five back ends of back-to-backs.

"We have a lot of moving pieces right now, guys are in and out of the lineup -- and when we have our whole team, we have a pretty good team and we can compete with anybody, and we know that," said Marchand, who had 10 shots on goal Wednesday but also was called for two penalties -- both leading to power-play goals.

Defenseman Kevan Miller, who missed the first 19 games of the season because of a broken hand, left Wednesday's game with an upper-body injury. His status for Thursday was unknown.

Julien doesn't announce his upcoming goaltender, but with Tuukka Rask playing both Monday and Wednesday, it is a good bet backup Anton Khudobin will get the start. Khudobin is 1-4 with a 3.02 goals-against average, and the team is just 1-7-0 when Rask doesn't start.

Anaheim goalie John Gibson, in goal for the late blitz Tuesday, has never faced the Bruins, while Jonathan Bernier is 3-5-0 with a 3.41 GAA and a .901 save percentage against Boston.

Khudobin is 0-0-1 against Anaheim, Rask an unimpressive 1-4-1 with a 3.48 GAA and a .873 save percentage.