Practice notes

WILMINGTON -- Five straight wins, eight of nine in the bag. The Bruins have made winning a habit.

"The veteran players, we always get in conversation about it," said Aaron Ward. "We're always assessing things you need to change, things guys need to do to create better habits. The onus is always on the older guys to do those things.

"And the funny thing now is, it's just one of those things you leave alone. Extraordinary things are becoming very regular things now."

Players formerly known for skill and not snarl are getting in opponents' faces. Guys known to possess limited offensive skill are taking the puck to the net. If a shooting lane opens, someone – no matter who – is going to fill it.

"What was once sacrifice now becomes habit," said Ward. "Everybody's pulling the same rope."

* Andrew Ference will miss the trip to New York after taking an Andrei Markov slapper off in the second period of Thursday night's win.

"I think everybody knows, he's been one of our most consistent defensemen since the start of the year," said Julien. "When we lost Chucky early on, he was a big loss too and we survived it. I think we've got to survive the loss of Andrew for this weekend – hopefully just this weekend. But I think Matt Hunwick has been getting better every game, and it's an opportunity for him to step in and do the job."

Hunwick was scratched last night, but played three prior games in Shane Hnidy's place.

"I think the past three games I've been in, I've just been trying to keep it simple," said the 23-year-old. "Things are going well, so I'm just going to try to step in and be a positive player.

* Shawn Thornton drew praise from Julien. The winger's offensive game flourished Thursday, as he scored his first of the season, assisted on another, and was a fourth-line force from start to finish.

"When he's out on the ice, I don't care of you're Georges Laraque – Georges Laraque knows that if something's going to happen, Thorny's gonna step in there. It makes your team bigger, you know?" said Julien.

* Asked to point out one Ranger to watch, Ward singled out Nikolai Zherdev, traded to New York from Columbus in July.

"We haven't seen him," said Ward. "The easiest thing for a defenseman is familiarity. Even a guy like (Thomas) Vanek, as much as he dominates the league, you know what his tendencies are."

* Marco Sturm, demoted to the third line a few games ago while mired in a scoreless spell, grabbed two last night.

"I don't necessarily think it's a wake-up call," said Julien. "He just got bumped another line, and whether that was intended or not, we want him to play with a little more passion. It makes his game better. He's getting rewarded. Sometimes it's just finding your stride. Sometimes those guys don't even realize it, you know, when they do and they see the success you hope they build on it and continue to do it."

* Julien on the B's rolling four lines: “I don't think we'd be sitting here today talking about four huge points had it not been for the depth of our hockey club. You can't play against a team like (Montreal) with three lines and a shortened bench.

"You've got different guys scoring big goals at different times. That's what we were last year – we were relying on a line or two, and when those guys didn't score much, that's why our team didn't score many goals last year."

* Julien added that regularly calling on the Thornton-Yelle-Kobasew line makes others loosen their grips on the lumber. "It does take a lot of pressure off those guys too, and you just hope they find their range. You look at Michael Ryder still stuck on two goals, against every team he's getting close chances, but they're not going in right now. I don't think I can complain about his work ethic, because he's in there, he's grinding it out, he's doing a lot of good things. Phil Kessel, he's been held off now for a while, but he's a streaky goal scorer; he'll get 'er going again.

"I think that's the key to success. You look at a team like the Red Wings – they've got depth and they've got scoring from everywhere. Now I'm certainly not comparing our team right now to the Red Wings, but that's that's kind of what you'd like to see, throughout the season, you've got everybody to get you in. Last night, when your fourth line scores three goals, it's certainly good seeing it,” he said.

* In his AHL days, Julien was a devotee of his pregame rituals. “I was one of those birds that always dressed the same way – right pad, left pad, right skate, you know, everything – if I screwed up, I'd be mad at myself because I felt I wasn't mentally prepared. I was an odd bird like that, too. My stick would be put in a certain place, no one was allowed to touch it. It was my way of preparing. But there's a lot of oddballs. I was probably normal compared to a lot of them.”

* After tomorrow, the Bruins will have played four of five games against Original Six opponents. "If I had my druthers, I would still really appreciate it if we could get a little more Black and Gold, and a lot more of that Red, White and Blue out of the Garden,” said Ward, adding that he heard the sarcastic "Ole, ole" chant the Bruins fans directed at Habs supporters.

“I applaud the tongue-in-cheek. I started thinking, 'that's not right,' but then I realized it was our fans. It's good for the rivalry.”