The 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs officially don’t start until mid-April, but you can expect Thursday night’s game between the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators to be played with the excitement and sense of urgency found in the postseason.
It’s a must-win game for both teams, more so for Ottawa, though. The Senators sit four points (with a game in hand) behind the Bruins for the last wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and have Thursday’s game on home ice.
There’s still a lot of pressure on the B’s, who begin an important three-game road trip in the Canadian capital. Boston cannot afford to be dropping points to inferior teams such as Ottawa because it has a three-game stretch against elite teams on the schedule next week, which includes matchups with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers.
The Bruins aren’t expected to make any changes to their lines or pairings from Tuesday’s shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres. That said, Tuukka Rask likely will start in net after sitting out Tuesday due to “general soreness.” The reigning Vezina Trophy winner is 4-1-1 with a .952 save percentage in six March starts.
Both the Bruins and Senators have received much-needed scoring production from rookies over the last few weeks, as seen in TSN’s graphic below. Two of the most productive rookies, Ottawa winger Mark Stone and Boston winger David Pastrnak, should play key roles in the outcome of Thursday’s showdown.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (36-23-11, fourth in Atlantic)
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Milan Lucic-Ryan Spooner-David Pastrnak
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Max Talbot/Brian Ferlin
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid
Dennis Seidenberg-Matt Bartkowski
Tuukka Rask
OTTAWA SENATORS (34-24-11, fifth in Atlantic)
Milan Michalek-Kyle Turris-Mark Stone
Mike Hoffman-Mika Zibanejad-Bobby Ryan
Matt Puempel – David Legwand-Alex Chiasson
Erik Condra-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Curtis Lazar
Marc Methot-Erik Karlsson
Patrick Wiercioch-Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki-Eric Gryba
Andrew Hammond
Thumbnail photo via Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports Images