Meaningful hockey makes its long-awaited return to TD Garden on Thursday night as the Boston Bruins host the Winnipeg Jets to open the 2015-16 regular season.
Boston will trot out a revamped lineup that features a bevy of newcomers — five players will make their Bruins debuts — but lacks defenseman Zdeno Chara, who will miss the game as he continues to recover from an upper body injury.
The Jets, meanwhile, kept largely intact the roster that earned Winnipeg a playoff berth last season. Each of their top five point-scorers are back, including captain Andrew Ladd (team-high 62 points) and former Bruins winger Blake Wheeler, who led the team in goals last season with 26.
Here are the projected lines and pairings for Thursday’s game:
BOSTON BRUINSÂ (0-0-0)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Loui Eriksson
Matt Beleskey — David Krejci — David Pastrnak
Jimmy Hayes — Ryan Spooner — Brett Connolly
Chris Kelly — Joonas Kemppainen — Zac Rinaldo
Torey Krug — Adam McQuaid
Joe Morrow — Kevan Miller
Matt Irwin — Zach Trotman
Tuukka Rask
WINNIPEG JETS (0-0-0)
Andrew Ladd — Bryan Little — Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault — Mark Scheifele — Nikolaj Ehlers
Alexander Burmistrov — Adam Lowry — Drew Stafford
Chris Thorburn — Andrew Copp — Nicolas Petan
Ben Chiarot — Dustin Byfuglien
Toby Enstrom — Tyler Myers
Mark Stuart — Jacob Trouba
Ondrej Pavelec
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
