WILMINGTON -- The new-look Bruins' lineup continued to morph closer to what management and the coaching staff anticipated with the return of Marc Savard to practice Tuesday at Ristuccia Arena.

Savard, who was given Monday off, centered a line flanked by Marco Sturm and Mark Recchi. With Shawn Thornton given a second straight "maintenance day" by coach Claude Julien, the rest of the lines featured recent call-up Brad Marchand skating with Patrice Bergeron and Michael Ryder, fellow call-up Vladimir Sobotka complementing the David Krejci-Blake Wheeler combination, and seventh defenseman Johnny Boychuk filling in on the fourth line next to Steve Begin and Byron Bitz.

The addition of Marchand and Sobotka, combined with the trade of Chuck Kobasew and the deactivation of injured forward Milan Lucic, means that the Bruins, in their pursuit of consistency after a 3-4-0 start, will have to mix in new faces and old faces in new places.

"There's always a period of adaptation, I guess. But I don't think we're in a position to sit and wait for that to happen," said Julien. "You hope that it happens sooner than later. They've had a couple days to practice with our team and they've been with us before, so I don't anticipate it being a huge thing and I certainly wouldn't want to use that as an excuse, that's for sure."

Just a gash

Defenseman Andrew Ference left the ice late in practice after a puck deflected off his stick and into his right eye. Julien said that Ference has a major cut but is expected to be OK to play.

Preds are the prey

There might not be a better opponent for the Bruins to get back on track against than Nashville, which lands at TD Garden Wednesday. The Predators are just 2-4-1 and have scored 10 goals in those seven games. Plus, their captain and one of their top offensive performers, center Jason Arnott, is out one to two weeks with a shoulder/arm injury.

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