Photo taken from NHL.com. 
Photo taken from NHL.com.
The Bruins close out their three-game homestand tonight when they face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm ET, and the game will be broadcast on NESN and Fox Sports Sun. Here’s a look at the projected lineups for tonight’s matchup. Please note, at the time of my writing this, the teams had yet to release their projected lineups, so I based these off of the team’s last practice or game and I will update it as soon as I get the chance when and if any changes occur. I would expect that if any do, that they will only be minor.
Boston Bruins:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Coyle*-Ritchie
Heinen-Lindholm**-Kuhlman
Nordstrom-Kuraly-Wagner
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Clifton
Rask
Halak
*David Krejci is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury and has not been ruled out. If he is ready to go, he will be in his normal second-line center spot, Coyle will move down to the third line, and Par Lindholm will likely come out of the lineup.
**Lindholm and Backes both practiced as the third-line center yesterday, but I believe Lindholm is the more likely chance. However, if Krejci is good to go as I mentioned above, I doubt either will be in, but Backes may go in for Ritchie.
Tamp Bay Lightning:
Stamkos-Point-Kucherov
Palat-Johnson-Gourde
Killorn-Cirelli-Joseph
Maroon-Verhaeghe-Witkowski
Hedman-Cernak
McDonagh-Shattenkirk
Coburn-Sergachev
Vasilevskiy
McElhinney
Despite their rocky start to the season, the Lightning are the toughest opponent the Bruins have faced so far in this young season. They return virtually the same group of players that won 62 games last season, and while they appear to be having issues with team chemistry and attitude which is affecting their on-ice performance, they are still a dangerous team. If the Bruins do not come to play, they won’t even come close to winning. Even if they have another terrible second period, this could get ugly. But, if they play their game and do so over the full 60 minutes (or at least close to it), they can win this game. Tampa may have won 62 games last season and it may be an almost identical roster, but the only reason they won that much last year is they were the best at close games. Nobody should be intimated by their stats, as they weren’t really that much better than everyone else, they were just better at winning one-goal games. So, if the Bruins get off to another strong start, they can put themselves in a great position to win this game, and I think they can do it. I’ll be live tweeting the game over at PUCKerUp Boston again so come hang out, and then I may have a postgame up on this blog after, but I’m not sure as I will be getting up rather early on Friday and may not be able to get it done in a timely fashion. But, still check back to see, as I may get to it!
Hockey Addict 