Pivotal game

The Bruins are coming off yesterday's bag skate and team meeting to square off tonight against the Canadiens, a club that has claimed four wins in four previous meetings this season.

"Just the fact that this is a team that's four points ahead of us and it's a divisional game -- they always mean a lot," said Claude Julien. "We've given them eight points and we've gotten none out of it. So I think it's about time our team reacted."

* Julien said there's a good chance that Aaron Ward, out the last eight games with a broken left foot, could return tonight. Ward skated in yesterday's puckless session and participated in today's morning skate.

* Glen Murray's return is indefinite, according to Julien. Murray (hip flexor strain) didn't skate today or yesterday.

* Tim Thomas will start tonight.

* P.J. Axelsson, Marc Savard, Marco Sturm, Chuck Kobasew, Glen Metropolit, and Peter Schaefer took this morning off.

Tonight's expected lineup, with Ward back in the mix:

Axelsson-Savard-Kessel
Sturm-Krejci-Kobasew
Lucic-Metropolit-Schaefer
Reich-Nokelainen-Thornton

Chara-Wideman
Stuart-Ference
Hnidy-Ward

Thomas