BOSTON — The Boston Bruins won twice and lost once during their season-opening trip despite missing center Patrice Bergeron because of a lower-body injury.

When they meet the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden in their home opener Thursday night, the Bruins are expected to have their scoring leader back.

Bergeron, an alternate captain and three-time 30-goal scorer, practiced Wednesday with the Bruins for the first time since suffering the injury near the end of practice Oct. 12. There’s a strong possibility he’ll be back in the lineup against the Devils.

“Of course I want to be (back) as fast as possible,” Bergeron said. “That’s the talk I’ve had all week with (the medical staff). But at the same time you have to respect their opinion that they’re the ones that are putting the team and my interest in front, and making sure we’re all taking care of that. So we’ll see what happens. Obviously I’d like to be on the ice but … hopefully I feel good tonight and tomorrow morning, and we can go from there.”

Bergeron said he felt fine after going through the entire practice and not being limited. He wouldn’t get more specific about his injury, only saying, “It was in practice. I just hurt myself.”

Coach Claude Julien expects to have Bergeron in the lineup.

“Unless I’m told otherwise today or tomorrow when he comes in and feels any different, I think we’re hoping he’s going to be in the lineup,” Julien said.

The Bruins made do by moving David Backes from right wing to center between Bergeron’s linemates, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. The line of Backes, Marchand and Pastrnak combined for 16 points in three games.

The Bruins’ home struggles last season contributed to their missing the playoffs for a second straight season.

Coming off a relatively successful trip, Boston knows it needs to exercise home dominance to prove it’s an improved team.

“We all know we’ve still got to improve as a hockey club,” Julien said. “And there’s areas where we need to be better. But the fact that we were able to get through this road trip with a bunch of new players, the first road trip, and come out of there with a winning record is a good thing. So we’ve got to follow it up with this short home stretch here and hopefully we can build on that.”

When you give a 19-year-old defenseman like Brandon Carlo the job of playing against an opponent’s top line, it’s tough to ask for much offense.

But Carlo, who has been paired with Zdeno Chara the first three games of the season, scored his first NHL goal in Monday night’s 4-1 win against Winnipeg, and it came in a clutch situation. With the Bruins nursing a 2-1 lead, Carlo beat Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

What was going through his head?

“Not much. I kind of blanked out, I guess you could say,” Carlo said. “I was really excited to get that opportunity in the slot and put it in the back of the net. It definitely kind of sealed the game. I was really excited to get the win.”

Carlo and Chara both had a plus-3 rating Monday night. Carlo is plus-7 through three games.

“It was a really important goal,” Julien said. “He’s played against top lines since the start of the season. For a young player like that, he’s shown a lot of poise.”

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