By Michael Vega, Globe Staff

With his team languishing at the bottom of the NHL Eastern Conference standings -- in dead last after Thursday night's 2-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden -- Bruins coach Claude Julien looked to try to spark the squad by making some line changes and reuniting the Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton line.

"What would you expect me to do?'' said Julien, whose team will play the second half of this home-and-home series with the Canadiens Saturday night at the Bell Centre. "It's a simple answer. It's a coach just trying to find solutions, it's as simple as that.''

The Bruins coach made the move in hopes of getting the team's top line back in its playoff form of last season. Lucic-Krejci-Horton struggled to produce in the first three games of the season, with Horton landing just one shot on goal in his first 43:50 of ice time and Krejci missing some time with a core injury.

Asked if he was hoping to seize upon their playoff chemistry, Julien replied: ``You can look at it whichever way you want. I'm just making some line changes. Some of it is `Hey, will bringing guys back together help?' Who knows?

"If it doesn't,'' Julien warned, ``I'm telling you right now, you're going to see changes again.''

In other news:

Benoit Pouliout was a no-show at today's practice session at TD Garden. Julien reported Pouliot was sick and was uncertain as to whether the left winger would make the trip to Montreal for Saturday night's game.