The Boston Bruins have featured a handful of different lineups as the season has gone on, and they’ll debut yet another installment Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
As has been the case at times this season, the B’s are dealing with an injury issue. Forward Daniel Paille is out Wednesday and Thursday with a concussion, although he could return in time for Saturday’s game against Carolina. He’ll be replaced temporarily by 13th forward Jordan Caron, who last played on March 4. The winger chipped in with an assist in that game.
On the Boston blue line, the newly acquired Andrej Meszaros is back in the lineup. He made his Bruins debut Sunday in Florida and scored a power-play goal. He’s once again replacing Dougie Hamilton on the Boston blue line, as Hamilton is a healthy scratch for the second time in as many games.
On the Montreal side, Brandon Prust is in the lineup in place of Rene Bourque. There was some hope in Montreal circles that Carey Price would be able to return from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out since the Olympics. However, Price won’t dress against Boston. Instead, Peter Budaj will get the starting nod. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Habs. In six career games against the Bruins, Budaj is 4-1-0 with a .919 save percentage and 2.35 goals against average.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairs for Wednesday night’s game.
Bruins (42-17-5, 89 points)
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly — Carl Soderberg — Loui Eriksson
Jordan Caron — Gregory Campbell — Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara — Andrej Meszaros
Matt Bartkowski — Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug — Kevan Miller
Canadiens (35-24-7, 77 points)
Max Pacioretty — David Desharnais — Brendan Gallagher
Thomas Vanek — Tomas Plekanec — Brian Gionta
Alex Galchenyuk — Lars Eller — Danny Briere
Brandon Prust — Ryan White — Travis Moen
Andrei Markov — Alexei Emelin
Francois Boullion — P.K. Subban
Douglas Murray — Jarred Tinordi
