BOSTON — The Bruins will spend the final week before the NHL All-Star break trying to gain some ground in the crowded Eastern Conference, beginning Saturday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Boston owns the East’s first wild-card spot entering its first meeting of the season with Columbus, while the Blue Jackets enter the game ranked dead last in the NHL with a 17-27-4 record. The Jackets have lost six of their last eight and will be without head coach John Tortorella, who did not make the trip to Boston after breaking two ribs Friday in practice.
The game will be Gregory Campbell’s first at TD Garden since the former Boston forward joined Columbus this past offseason.
The Bruins, meanwhile, are looking to bounce back after Thursday’s 4-2 home loss to the Vancouver Canucks, which snapped a three-game winning streak for the B’s.
Winger Matt Beleskey is a question mark for Saturday night after missing Friday’s practice with an illness. He did participate in Boston’s optional skate Saturday morning, however, and said he’d be ready to go if head coach Claude Julien chose to play him.
“Yeah, that’s obviously Claude’s decision,” Beleskey told reporters, via BostonBruins.com. “I feel better today, so I’ll let him know and see what happens.”
Assuming Beleksey does play, here are the projected lines and pairings for both teams:
UPDATE (6:40 p.m. ET): Beleskey was indeed healthy enough to play, and Julien also made a surprising tweak to his lineup, moving Ryan Spooner from third-line center to first-line right wing and sitting Brett Connolly, who’d managed just one goal (an empty-netter) in his previous 23 games.
BOSTON BRUINS (24-17-5)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Ryan Spooner
Lou Eriksson — David Krejci — David Pastrnak
Matt Beleskey — Joonas Kemppainen — Jimmy Hayes
Zac Rinaldo — Max Talbot — Landon Ferraro
Zdeno Chara — Zach Trotman
Joe Morrow — Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug — Kevan Miller
Jonas Gustavsson
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS (17-27-4)
Scott Hartnell — Alexander Wennberg — Brandon Saad
Boone Jenner — Brandon Dubinsky — Cam Atkinson
Kerby Rychel — William Karlsson — Nick Foligno
Matt Calvert — Gregory Campbell — Rene Bourque
Ryan Murray — Seth Jones
Jack Johnson — Justin Faulk
Fedor Tyutin — Dalton Prout
Joonas Korpisalo
Thumbnail photo via Russell LaBounty/USA TODAY Sports Images
