Maybe this is the coaching change that’s worked. The Boston Bruins have already seen that a new face behind the bench in Tampa hasn’t gotten the Lightning anywhere. But the Carolina Hurricanes, at the TD Banknorth Garden for a matinee today, seem to be responding to new (old) coach Paul Maurice, who took over for the fired Peter Laviolette Dec. 3.

After losing Maurice’s first game in regulation Dec. 4, the ‘Canes have picked up at least a point in the last six and have even won three of those games, including a triumph of Montreal.

One area that’s improved under Maurice is power play productivity. Carolina had gone six games without a man-advantage goal before Maurice took over (25 failed chances) but since then the ‘Canes are a respectable 8-for-43. The Bruins will need to get their feet moving early and shake those matinee cobwebs out to avoid costly penalties.

The season series: This is the first of four meetings between the Bruins and the ‘Canes this season. The Bruins were 1-3-0 vs. Carolina last season. The ‘Canes have won the last four meetings played in Boston.

Carolina Player to Watch: Just in time for him to face the Bruins, veteran forward Eric Staal seems to be heating up. Like the rest of his teammates, Staal started slow after the coaching change. But in the last five games he has recorded five goals and two assists. Staal tortured the Bruins last season with 2-3-5 totals in the four meetings.

Corvo

The Carolina Hurricanes will be at the TD Banknorth Garden today, so let’s peruse the Raleigh News & Observer to find out what’s happening with the former Hartford Whalers.

R&O reporter Chip Alexander reports on defenseman Joe Corvo, who has been heating up. He scored the game-winner in overtime the other night against Florida.

Julien

WILMINGTON, Mass. — As the Toronto Maple Leafs proved last night, pulling the goaltender doesn’t always solve a team’s problems.

The Leafs made the move from Vesa Toskala to Curtis Joseph with results so disastrous they went back to Toskala for the third period. Of course, the Boston Bruins benefited from their own goaltender switch from Tim Thomas to Manny Fernandez for the game’s final 20 minutes. It was the first time the Bruins had changed goaltenders during a game this season, and the fifth and sixth times a Bruins opponent has made a switch (all to a negative result).

Today after practice, Bruins head coach Claude Julien acknowledged that deciding to make that in-game goaltender change is one of the tougher aspects of his job.

“It’s never a good situation because, first of all, if you do it in the middle of a period it’s obvious to everybody. If you do it at the end of a period, obviously they’ve announced the change. So it’s never fun for the goaltender to hear himself being pulled out. But it still goes back to every tough decision a coach has to make you’ve got to make it for the right reasons. That’s what I did yesterday, I tried to bring some attention to our team and give Timmy a break for a night where pucks seemed to be getting by him and nothing seemed to be hitting him. Some other nights, there’s been a bunch of deflections but they were hitting him. So it’s just the nature of the game and some nights it goes your way and some nights it doesn’t.”

So this is what it has come to in Ottawa. Senators head coach Craig Hartsburg might start tonight’s game in New Jersey with playmaker Jason Spezza centering checkers Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Neil, as Ken Warren tells us in the Ottawa Citizen.

Ottawa has lost four of its last five and scored just four goals in its last four outings. Ouch!

MK: This is good news for the Bruins in that it’s obviously panic time in Canada’s capital and that means that if this move doesn’t work, the Sens might be demoralized — making them an easy two points for the remainder of the year and a candidate to do some major trading of its higher-priced assets.

Sturm

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien said after today’s practice at Risctuccia Arena that winger Marco Sturm’s injury had too much swelling for doctors to issue a final verdict.

“He’s not going to play tomorrow,” the coach said. “They’re still running some tests on him now. I guess when we do divulge what the issue is, hopefully we’ll be clear.”

Julien would only reveal that the injury is lower-body. Sturm seemed to grab his left knee after he fell during the game with Toronto last night. He was then helped off the ice and did not return.

Julien said that he and general manager Peter Chiarelli will discuss whether to call up reinforcements for the upcoming road trip to St. Louis and New Jersey, which starts after the Bruins host Carolina Saturday.

In other injury news, defenseman Aaron Ward (leg) and forward Petteri Nokelainen (upper body) both hit the ice for the second straight day after the full squad practiced and they both expended a little more energy than they did in their first day out.

Thomas

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Dont’ worry about Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas still stewing in his juices after he was unable to close out the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday in the Bruins’ 8-5 win. Thomas was removed in favor of Manny Fernandez after the second intermission with the  Bruins holding a 6-5 lead.

“Pretty easily,” Thomas said today after practice at Ristuccia Arena when asked how he turns the page after a rough night in the crease. “Say for example, if you get a shutout, you have to turn the page. It’s the same process every time. Plus we won, 8-5. It’s like if you’re a pitcher for the Red Sox but you end up winning 11-10. Who cares in the overall picture? It’s better than losing 2-1 and not getting the run support.”

Of course, it’s taken some time to learn how to deal with disappointment and even jubilation so that he can keep on an even keel.

“I usually turn the page by the next game,” he said.”But I’d probably carry it into the next day a little more (when I was younger). It’s definitely something that comes with experience. Certainly, you have these nights over the course of a career. I’ve had them in Providence, I’ve had them in the NHL – once or twice every year that I’ve been in the NHL. And look around. (San Jose’s Evgeni) Nabokov let up six last night (to Detroit).”

Lucic

The Montreal Canadiens were more than excited to have veteran defenseman Mike Komisarek back in the line-up last night, as Pat Hickey of the Montreal  Gazette reports after the Habs’ 5-2 win over Philadelphia. Komisarek, you’ll remember, was injured in the fight with Lucic back on Nov. 13.

Just in time for Komisarek’s return, however, Lucic knocked Toronto defenseman Mike Van Ryn out of last night’s game with a potential concussion, as Tim Wharnsby of the Globe and Mail reports. Van Ryn was playing his third game after returning from a previous concussion. Of course, this was the second time Lucic victimized Van Ryn, who Lucic checked through the glass earlier this season.

The next team to try to derail the Boston Bruins’ “good-feeling express” will be the Carolina Hurricanes, who will arrive in Boston for Saturday’s matinee on the heels of an overtime win over Florida Thursday. Javier Serna of the Raleigh News & Observer has all the details, including Joe Corvo’s overtime game-winner.

Carolina has now won two in a row for the first time since Nov. 21 and the Hurricanes have at least one point in six straight games.

MK: This game has all the classic elements of a “trap game” — a less-heralded opponent, an early-afternoon start … you name it. So far the Bruins have avoided all the traps on their schedule. This will be another stiff test.

Sturm

If it’s not one thing it’s another for Boston Bruins winger Marco Sturm.

As of last night’s postgame press conference, head coach Claude Julien did not have a medical update on the veteran who left the win over Toronto at 13:37 of the first period after hitting the boards and falling down while reaching for his left knee. Sturm had just been checked cleanly by Leafs winger Nikolai Kulemin. He did not return to the game nor was he available to speak after the contest.

Sturm had missed the previous 12 games with the symptoms of a whiplash. And it took him just 36 seconds to announce his return when he scored the first of an eventual 13 goals in the wild affair.

MK: Hopefully for the Bruins, this’ll be another day-to-day situation. While they’ve made it through the last few weeks without him, the Bruins don’t want to have to go without him for the long haul. Should this be a long-term injury, the Bruins will no doubt intensify their focus on the trade market.

Fernandez

BOSTON — While the Toronto Maple Leafs’ goaltender switch from Vesa Toskala to Curtis Joseph went so awry tonight that head coach Ron Wilson actually switched back to Toskala before the third period, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien’s goaltender swap was  just  what the doctor ordered.

Although more than half of Toronto’s five goals that eluded Bruins starter Tim Thomas went off other players’ body parts (including one of Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart’s hand), it was obviously a rough night for the All-Star. So Julien called on Manny Fernandez for the third period, and the Bruins’ other goalie responded with 13 saves to close out the Bruins’ 8-5 win over Toronto at TD Banknorth Garden. (more…)

Krejci

BOSTON — Center David Krejci’s first NHL hat trick in the Boston Bruins’ 8-5 win over Toronto tonight at the TD Banknorth Garden ignited a swarm of hats to fly onto the ice — albeit with a little delay.

But alas, the second-year forward was not graced by the toss of a bra the way his longtime linemate Blake Wheeler was earlier this season after his first NHL hat trick.

“No, I wasn’t as popular as Blake,” quipped Krejci, continuing to prove that English is catching up to Czech in the race to be his No. 1 language. (more…)

Matheson

Longtime Boston Bruins scout Donnie Matheson passed away in his sleep earlier today at 55.

Matheson was in his 15th year as a scout with the Bruins. His current responsibility was amateur talent in the Maritime Provinces. He was also serving as Director of Recruiting for the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL.

“It was with great sadness that we learned this morning of Donnie Matheson’s passing,” Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said in a statement. “Donnie was a very valuable member of the Boston Bruins family for 15 years and he will be dearly missed. Our thoughts are with Donnie’s wife Jane and all the members of the Matheson family during this incredibly difficult time.”

On the Moncton  Wildcats’ Web site, Bruins Director of Amateur Scouting Wayne Smith said: “I have lost a great close friend, the Boston Bruins have lost a highly talented judge of young hockey players and the Moncton Wildcats have lost a dedicated judge and developer of hockey talent.”

The St. Louis Blues were supposed to be one of the more improved teams in the NHL this season, but they sit 15th in the Western Conference as I write this now.

The Boston Bruins will visit St. Louis Sunday night, and the team they’ll face will be a far cry from the one head coach Andy Murray had projected back in October — especially on the back end.

Today came news that star blueliner and team captain Eric Brewer will be out indefinitely after surgery to repair a herniated disc. Earlier this week, the Blues got bad news on veteran blueliner and shot-blocker extraordinaire Jay McKee, who’s out indefinitely with a broken finger. And, of course, they’ve been without former No. 1 pick Erik  Johnson all season with an injury suffered stopping a golf cart.

Boston’s trip to St. Louis surely couldn’t come at a better time.

–Something tells me the Blues brass will watch Sunday night’s game with a bit of a pain its collective gut as Dennis Wideman continues to improve by leaps and bounds. And old friend Brad Boyes is basically now just a very good player on a very bad team.

Leetch

Former Boston Bruins defenseman Brian Leetch, who should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame next year, was named Hockey East’s Best Defensive Defenseman today as part of the league’s 25th Anniversary celebration.

Leetch, who skated for just one season in black and gold, also skated just one year with Boston College, for whom he was named a First Team All-American for his nine-goal 38-assist season that also saw BC win the Hockey East regular-season title. Leetch then went on to an 18-year NHL career.

It’s out with the Southeast Division (at least for one game) and in with the hardnosed Northeast Division tonight, as the Boston Bruins welcome Toronto to the TD Banknorth Garden.

The Bruins, winners of seven of their last eight, are coming off a stretch of six straight games against teams from the Southeast — five wins and one loss, with the defeat coming on the road against division-leading Washington.

While the region of the continent where the opponent is from will change, the Bruins know the object is still to make sure they keep the teams from lower down in the conference from taking them out.

“We want to keep going until Christmas. We’ve got four games and we’re priding ourselves on getting wins,” said Bruins center Marc Savard after his team’s morning skate. “Tonight’s the stepping stone for that. We can’t take this team lightly. Obviously,  they’ve played great lately. They work hard for 60 minutes and we’ve got to bring our best.”

The Leafs have won three in a row and are 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Season series: The Bruins have won two of three from the Leafs, including one of two at the Garden. Blake Wheeler is Boston’s leading scorer against Toronto this season with four assists, while Tim Thomas — the expected starting goaltender — is 11-4-0-2 career with a 2.84 goals-against average against the Leafs.

Toronto Player to Watch: Here’s an odd stat for you. The 12-12-6 Leafs are 8-4-4 when defenseman Mike Van Ryn is in the line-up, including 2-0 since his return from injury Dec. 12. On the year,  Van Ryn has posted three goals, five assists and a plus-2 rating. Of course, around these parts he’ll  always be known as the guy Milan Lucic checked through the Garden glass.