Berkshire Bank Faceoff: Projected Lines, Pairings For Bruins-Lightning

The Boston Bruins can move into first place in the Atlantic Division for the first time all season with a win Tuesday night over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Bruins moved to within one point of the top spot after Monday night’s overtime win over the Florida Panthers. The Lightning, who entered Tuesday as the division leaders, had a nine-game win streak snapped Monday with a loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Neither team held a pregame skate Tuesday morning in Tampa Bay, but with goalie Tuukka Rask getting the nod against Florida, expect backup Jonas Gustavsson to be in net against the Lightning. The Bolts, meanwhile, started their No. 2, Andrei Vasilevskiy, against Philly, meaning the Bruins likely will see starter Ben Bishop.

The line combinations for both teams won’t become clear until pregame warmups, but it will be interesting to see how Bruins coach Claude Julien positions right wings David Pastrnak and Brett Connolly. Julien flipped the two midway through Monday’s win, promoting Connolly to the second line and dropping Pastrnak to the fourth.

Here’s a look at the projected lineups, which are subject to change:

UPDATE (7:10 p.m. ET): Defenseman Joe Morrow returned to the lineup for Boston, with Zach Trotman apparently sitting out as a healthy scratch. John-Michael Liles also moved up to join Zdeno Chara on the top defensive pairing.

BOSTON BRUINS (37-23-7)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Lee Stempniak
Matt Beleskey — David Krejci — David Pastrnak
Loui Eriksson — Ryan Spooner — Jimmy Hayes
Landon Ferraro — Noel Acciari — Brett Connolly

Zdeno Chara — John-Michael Liles
Joe Morrow — Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug — Adam McQuaid

Jonas Gustavsson

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (39-23-4)
Alex Killorn — Steven Stamkos — Ryan Callahan
Ondrej Palat — Tyler Johnson — Nikita Kucherov
Cedric Paquette — Valtteri Filppula — J.T. Brown
Brian Boyle — Vladislav Namestnikov — Jonathan Marchessault

Slater Koekkoek — Anton Stralman
Victor Hedman — Matt Carle
Jason Garrison — Nikita Nesterov

Ben Bishop

Thumbnail photo via Jonathan Dyer/USA TODAY Sports Images