Jonathan Aspirot joined the Bruins for the road trip and was a full participant in Sunday’s practice. The 26-year-old defenseman suffered an upper-body injury on Dec. 11 against the Winnipeg Jets and has not played since.

What they have shown of late has been too much of last season and precious little of that grimy “piss ‘n’ vinegar” quotient that the front office was banking on.

Sturm shook up the lines at Sunday’s practice and put David Pastrnak back on the third line with Marat Khusnutdinov and Fraser Minten — a trio that found success together earlier in the season. Alex Steeves moved up to the top line with Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm.

The Bruins have skidded to sixth in the Atlantic and out of the top eight in the East. They need to right the ship quickly post-break.

BOS 1, BUF 4 | Period 3, 19:46 – Josh Norris (5) from Peyton Krebs (11) and Tage Thompson (16) Go inside the room following the Sabres' 8th straight win! The Sabres open a three-game road trip in St. Louis on Monday. Coverage on MSG begins at 7:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 8.

David Pastrnak scored in the first period for the Bruins, who have lost five in a row and six of their last seven games. Joonas Korpisalo made 30 saves. Pastrnak opened the scoring at 11:56 of the first with his 15th goal of the season.

Mattias Samuelsson had a goal and two assists as the Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 for their eighth straight victory.

Calgary has won four of its seven games as a favorite this season. In four games with moneyline odds shorter than -135, the Flames have two wins. According to the moneyline odds, Calgary has a 57.4% chance of winning this contest.

Ullmark is in his second season with the Senators after being traded to Ottawa after the 2023-24 season for Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic and a first-round pick — which the Bruins used to draft Dean Letourneau. In 28 games this season, Ullmark is 14-8-5 with a 2.95 GAA and an .881 save percentage.

The Boston Bruins make the first of three Western Canadian stops on their season-long, five-game road trip, visiting the Calgary Flames for a Monday night matchup of teams trending in opposite directions as they fight in crowded playoff races.

The Bruins have lost four of their last five games. That has not happened since October when they dropped six straight. They outplayed the Vancouver Canucks in Saturday’s 5-4 shootout setback. But their three other losses were all legitimate: 6-2 to the Minnesota Wild, 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2 to the Senators.

The Ottawa Senators announced on Sunday that goalie Linus Ullmark is taking a leave of absence for “personal reasons.” “‘Linus has the full support of our organization during this time,” Senators general manager and president of hockey operations Steve Staios said in a statement,