By Jason Mastrodonato, Globe Correspondent

WILMINGTON – After a disappointing performance on Thursday night in which the Bruins outshot the Hurricanes 47-31 but still left TD Garden empty handed in a 3-0 loss, those watching Friday morning’s practice might have been expecting some intensity.

But after 15 minutes on the ice, the struggling Bruins (4-4-1 over the last nine games) were still skating in circles, teeing off on pucks out of mid-air and firing slap shots from the neutral zone. Then head coach Claude Julien joined the party.

Suddenly his sluggish team turned the crank to full speed. The Bruins worked mostly on breakouts and forechecking – something they’ve struggled with during their recent funk.

“Anybody who watched our practice today saw that it had a pretty good pace,” said the pleased coach. “And this is kind of what we need to carry into these upcoming games – bringing our work ethic and commitment and everything else up to the next level that we have to bring it to.”

Julien didn’t make any changes to his lines nor does he expect to anytime soon, saying, “If it was one or two players who aren’t pulling their load it would be one thing. But it’s a whole team thing.”

Nathan Horton (concussion) was the only player who didn’t participate in practice, but Julien said he was feeling better on Friday and there was a possibility he would start exercising on the bike later in the day.

“Hopefully if everything goes well he’s going to start going through the stages of recovery as far as working out,” Julien said.

Adam McQuaid, who missed practice Wednesday before Thursday’s loss to Carolina due to a lower body injury, said he was feeling pretty sore but nothing unexpected. The defenseman figures to keep playing through the pain as the Bruins get back to work tomorrow at 1 p.m. on Causeway Street against the Penguins

Brad Marchand admitted to being “thrown off his game” on Thursday after he thought the officiating crew completely missed a high sticking call. Marchand argued that Eric Staal, whose lumber got mixed up with Zdeno Chara’s, caught Marchand in the face but no penalty was given.

“The first one Z got in the face, the second one Staal got me in the face,” Marchand said. “But the ref said Z got me in the face both times. I got a little frustrated after [that]. It should’ve been a penalty. The ref was looking right at it and I felt he missed the call. And it kind of threw me off my game a little bit.”