The Boston Bruins welcome the Carolina Hurricanes to TD Garden for the final time this season, looking for their first winning streak since January 12th tonight. But if history indeed repeats itself, Boston will be searching for a while longer.

The Bruins are 0-3 against Carolina this season, losing those three games by a combined score of 11-5. Despite their league-leading goal differential, Boston just hasn't been able to solve Cam Ward on a regular basis.

Carolina fell 5-2 to the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, while Boston came from a 3-1 deficit to beat Ottawa 4-3.

Three of Carolina's 18 wins on the season have come against Boston, and the Bruins will need a game effort to avoid being swept by the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

They'll get a boost with the return of defenseman Andrew Ference to the lineup after finishing serving a three-game suspension after charging the New York Rangers' Ryan McDonagh in a mid-January game. But Boston will still be without Nathan Horton, who's battling the ill effects of his second concussion in eight months.

Expect Tuukka Rask in net for Boston, after Tim Thomas returned to the win column with a workmanlike, 30-save effort on Tuesday night.

First things first: Happy 20th Birthday to Tyler Seguin

Second things second: Happy Second Half of the season to everyone else.

With the Bruins back from their extended all-star break, it's time to talk about hockey again. Not media mudslinging rivalries, not overdone political discussions and certainly not Daniel Alfredsson's hat trick in the All-Sta- oh, right.

Surprising Ottawa makes just their second trip to Boston this season, and it's the first time that the Bruins and Senators have seen each other since Ottawa served as the launching pad for Boston's filthy late-2011 run that saw them lose just three games in regulation in the final two months of the year.

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For the first time in ten days, Boston's lineup won't make fans squirm, as both Rich Peverley and Brad Marchand are set to return to the lineup after missing two and five games, respectively. But the bigger story today may be who's between the pipes.

Tim Thomas allowed four goals to Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, and putting Thomas in net tonight pretty much violates Boston's recent string of "I got next" goaltender selection. But that's not really an issue. What is an issue is that, with the Bruins heading home to face the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers on Saturday, Tuukka Rask suddenly looks like the go-to goalie.

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In the second game of a four game, East Coast road trip, the Bruins head into Miami to take on the surprising Florida Panthers. Despite leading their division with 50 points, just seven behind Boston, Florida has hit a bit of a rough patch following a red-hot start to the season. Winners of just three of their past 10 games, Florida coach Kevin Dineen resorted to splitting up the top line of Stephen Weiss, Tomas Fleischmann and former Boston draft pick Kris Versteeg in an effort to generate more offense.

This continued lack of offensive production bodes well for a Bruins team that is giving up an average of two goals per game over their last 10 games. With Boston’s goaltending tandem of Tuukka Rask and Tim Thomas topping all meaningful statistical categories, the Bruins seem to be hitting the Panthers at an opportune time. On the flip side, Scott Clemmensen will likely be in net tonight for Florida, who gave up four goals to the Bruins in two periods of play.

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The last time Boston and Carolina met, the Bruins couldn't get out of their own way. This time, the team that seems to find drama everywhere it goes is hoping for a clean game.

The Bruins amassed 18 penalties in the 4-1 loss at TD Garden back on October including three misconducts, a goalie leaving the crease infraction and an abuse of officials foul, totaling 71 minutes of penalty time.

The Hurricanes were trending downward then, and they haven't been able to turn much around in the three months since, as the former Hartford Whalers now sit 14th in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only the New York Islanders (who, just one point behind Carolina, also have four games in hand).

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The Boston Bruins look to improve to 3-0 without Brad Marchand in the lineup as they face off with their notorious Anglo-hating neighbors to the north, the Montreal Canadiens, this evening at TD Garden.

The Canadiens, who have struggled all season to get climb out of an early-season hole, have been plagued by injuries to their top (or at least highest-paid) talent. Captain Brian Gionta will not be playing tonight as he underwent surgery to repair a torn biceps muscle yesterday and is likely out for the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, the Bruins will continue to be without winger Brad Marchand, who is serving the second game of his five-game suspension for an illegal hit on Vancouver’s Sami Salo in the Bruins’ 4-3 loss to the defending Western Conference Champions on Saturday.

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In professional wrestling, when a defending champion loses his title, he's almost always guaranteed a chance to get his title back, and the return match is usually better than the first one, because the two adversaries know each other so well and actually have something personal on the line.

Alas, the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins face off this afternoon, but neither the President's Trophy nor the Stanley Cup will be at TD Garden this afternoon, and the only thing on the line in this mid-season tilt is two points.

And an awful lot of pride and respect.

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After a disappointing loss in Dallas, the Bruins will end their post-Christmas three-game road trip against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center in Newark.

The Devils are hanging onto the last playoff spot in the East with a 21-15-2 record for 44 points. They've been surging lately, having gone 7-2-1 in their last ten, but suffered a 3-2 OT loss to the hard-charging Senators on Monday.

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