Schaefer in, Kobasew out

Chuck Kobasew (groin) didn't skate this morning and will not be available tonight against Ottawa. Peter Schaefer, out since Feb. 5 because of a shin laceration, will return to the lineup.

However, all the focus is on today's 3 p.m. deadline. The Bruins aren't expected to make a big splash, but Claude Julien acknowledged the potential of distraction.

"Everybody right now is watching the tube and trying to figure out what's going on," Julien said. "There have been a couple blockbuster deals already, so it's been one of those mornings where distractions are certainly there if you want to make it a distraction. I cautioned our team about focusing on the game tonight because that's something we can control. What's going to happen in the next few hours, we can't."

* Tim Thomas will start tonight.

* Andrew Alberts skated on his own for about 25 minutes this morning. Alberts is still experiencing headaches, but thought that might because of the flu-like symptoms he's been suffering lately. Alberts is scheduled to be re-evaluated later this week.

* Glen Murray couldn't say determine which shutdown pair was better: Ottawa's Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov or Montreal's Mike Komisarek and Andrei Markov. "Both pretty tough when they're on," Murray said.

Tonight's expected lineup:

Axelsson-Savard-Murray
Sturm-Metropolit-Kessel
Lucic-Krejci-Schaefer
Reich-Sobotka-Thornton

Chara-Wideman
Ference-Ward
Stuart-Hnidy

Thomas