BOSTON — It all comes down to this between two of sports’ most bitter rivals.
The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens have no more secrets left. It’s just one game to decide which team advances to the Eastern Conference finals and which team heads home much sooner than they hoped. Neither team is expected to make any lineup changes for Game 7, and the lineups should look the same as they did in Montreal on Monday night.
That Canadiens lineup had one real noticeable change for Game 6 on Monday. Rookie defenseman Nathan Beaulieu was inserted on the Montreal back end, and the 21-year-old took the place of slow-footed veteran Douglas Murray. The result? The Habs shut out the Bruins, and Beaulieu recorded an assist on Max Pacioretty’s second-period goal.
For the Bruins, there was some wishful thinking that maybe defenseman Dennis Seidenberg would make a surprise return. That’s not going to be the case. He did not even take the pregame warmup. The Bruins are sticking with the same lineup they’ve used the last three games, and they’re hoping they can get some of their top forwards to break out. David Krejci has just three assists all postseason (two on empty-net goals), and second-line winger Brad Marchand is goalless in his last 19 playoff games dating back to last spring.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for both clubs.
Bruins
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Reilly Smith
Matt Fraser — Carl Soderberg — Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara — Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski — Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug — Kevan Miller
Canadiens
Max Pacioretty — David Desharnais — Thomas Vanek
Michael Bournival — Tomas Plekanec — Brendan Gallagher
Rene Bourque — Lars Eller — Brian Gionta
Traivs Moen — Danny Briere — Dale Weise
Josh Gorges — P.K. Subban
Andrei Markov — Alexei Emelin
Nathan Beaulieu — Mike Weaver
