WILMINGTON, Mass. The Bruins got their work on this morning at Ristuccia Arena between home-and-home games against the Maple Leafs, and worked diligently on their neutral zone coverage after some defensive slippage in a run-and-gun victory over the Maple Leafs.

It may be nitpicking for Julien, but it may also be the first signs that the Bruins are getting a little complacent after rocking November with a 12-0-1 record and shooting up the Northeast Division standings. Those are the kind of things that can portend a losing stretch if theyre not properly addressed in practice, and the Bs coach went about doing so.

I saw some slipping in our defensive systems and coverage more against Toronto in that last game than I saw through the entire run that were on, said Julien. So today was about addressing and correcting those things before it becomes a bigger issue in the next few games."The challenge is to keep us at the height of where we need to be at on a regular basis. It's becoming tougher and tougher. We're finding ways to win, but the coaching staff has found areas we need to work on where part of our game is slipping a little bit. We need to make sure we fix those kinds of things if we want to make ourselves better if we want to win hockey games."

Jordan Caron and Steve Kampfer were both missing from practice on Friday after getting sent down to the Providence Bruins to take in a little game action, but Julien indicated that both players would be back in time for the two-game road trip through Pittsburgh and Winnipeg next week.

The lines from practice:

Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Pouliot-Kelly-Peverley
Paille-Campbell-Thornton

Chara-Boychuk
Seidenberg-Corvo
Ference-McQuaid

Thomas
Rask