The Bruins head into Saturday on a three-game losing streak, and they’ll hope to break it in an Original Six matchup.
Head coach Jim Montgomery and captain Brad Marchand know the troubles that plagued Boston at the start of the season. The main focus will be to stay out of the penalty box so it can maintain consistency.
Montgomery will try to find that as he looks for the best combination outside of the fourth line. Matthew Poitras joins the Charlie Coyle line with Brad Marchand after his heads-up play in the loss to the Dallas Stars. Pavel Zacha moves back to the Elias Lindholm line, and the Bruins shuffled their defensive pairings for Saturday. Jeremy Swayman will get the starting nod again.
Puck drop for Saturday’s matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs is scheduled at 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage on NESN after an hour of pregame.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for the Bruins-Maple Leafs matchup.
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BOSTON BRUINS (3-4-1)
Pavel Zacha — Elias Lindholm — David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Matthew Poitras
Trent Frederic — Morgan Geekie — Justin Brazeau
John Beecher — Mark Kastelic — Cole Koepke
Mason Lohrei — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo
Nikita Zadorov — Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (4-4-0)
Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner
Bobby McMann — Max Domi — William Nylander
Steven Lorentz — John Tavares — Nicholas Robertson
Max Pacioretty — David Kampf — Ryan Reaves
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Morgan Rielly — Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Jake McCabe — Chris Tanev
Simon Benoit — Philippe Myers
Anthony Stolarz