BOSTON — The Bruins and Lightning finally start their Eastern Conference Final series Saturday night at the Garden, and both clubs will be facing changes in their lineups from the last round.
The Bruins will be reshuffling their lines to make up for the loss of center Patrice Bergeron, sidelined indefinitely with a concussion. Chris Kelly will move into his spot between Brad Marchand and Mark Recchi on the second line, while Tyler Seguin will make his playoff debut on the third line. Seguin will be on the right wing, with Michael Ryder sliding over to the left side of center Rich Peverley.
"We don't have a choice," Bruins coach Claude Julien said of the changes. "We had to move guys around. That's part of hockey, guys move around and play with different players. It's important for them to adapt. Sometimes you keep things simple, work some chemistry in. Before you know it, you're on the same page, able to read off each other.
"Those are pretty smart players that we moved around that can adapt," Julien added. "I know Ryder is on the left right now. He has played the left this year [and] seems comfortable shooting the puck from that side. Kelly has been a real smart player throughout his whole career. I don't see him having an issue adapting there. I'm one of those guys that's very optimistic and confident about Tyler coming in tonight and playing a solid game for us."
While the Bruins have lost one of their top forwards, the Lightning will be getting Simon Gagne back after he missed the final three games of the Washington series with a head injury of his own.
"He's had a terrific last two months of the season," Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher said. "If you look at his stats, he was one of our top, top guys. In the playoffs, he certainly made a big difference against Pittsburgh. It was too bad we were missing him against Washington basically the entire series.
"But he's a pressure guy," Boucher added. "He's lived it with Team Canada. He's lived it in Philly. He's been in pressure situations in the NHL so many years, and he's come up with big goals. He's one of those guys that's a clutch player. [He] certainly has and will be playing a huge part in our team."
Even with the return of Gagne, the Lightning will stick with just 11 forwards and dress seven defensemen instead of the standard 12-6 breakdown. That pushes forward Blair Jones back to the press box, while power-play specialist Marc-Andre Bergeron remains in the lineup as the extra blueliner.
"It's not hard to put Simon back in, that's for sure," Boucher said. "What we've been doing is, most of the year, we've played with seven defensemen and 11 forwards. I do have a tendency to go that way. Blair Jones from the American League was playing as the 11th forward the last games. Therefore, I think it's only fitting that Simon takes his spot back. We're going to keep the same defensive core for tonight, so go with 11 and seven again."
The Lightning are still without defenseman Pavel Kubina (upper body) and forward Dana Tyrell (foot). Kubina did not make the trip to Boston, while Tyrell skated in practice on Friday but was wearing a red non-contact jersey.
"He's getting closer," Boucher said. "Obviously next week was the target. It's still the target for Dana being available. It will just give us one more body that's able."
The Bruins will have another body available themselves, as defenseman Adam McQuaid is set to return after missing the final two games of the Philadelphia series with a sprained neck.
"He is ready to go tonight," Julien said. "He's a pretty steady defenseman. He gives us size and toughness. They got some big guys up front, [Ryan] Malone, [Vincent] Lecavalier, some guys that come in and grind it out. We need some size back there, and he's going to provide us with that."
With McQuaid back, Shane Hnidy will be the healthy scratch on defense. He played just 2:38 and 2:37 in his two games against the Flyers, so the return of McQuaid should help the Bruins better balance the workload on defense against Tampa's high-powered offensive attack.
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Chris Kelly-Mark Recchi
Michael Ryder-Rich Peverley-Tyler Seguin
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference-Johnny Boychuk
Tomas Kaberle-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Patrice Bergeron (concussion), Shane Hnidy, Steven Kampfer (knee), Matt Bartkowski, Jordan Caron, Jamie Arniel, Trent Whitfield, Anton Khudobin
Projected Lightning lines
Forwards
Ryan Malone-Steven Stamkos-Martin St. Louis
Simon Gagne-Vincent Lecavalier-Teddy Purcell
Sean Bergenheim-Dominic Moore-Steve Downie
Nate Thompson-Adam Hall
Defense
Eric Brewer-Mattias Ohlund
Victor Hedman-Brett Clark
Mike Lundin-Randy Jones
Marc-Andre Bergeron
Goalies
Dwayne Roloson
Mike Smith
Scratches: Pavel Kubina (upper body), Dana Tyrell (foot), Blair Jones, Mattias Ritola, Mathieu Roy, Matt Smaby, Marc-Andre Pouliot, Mike Angelidis, Dustin Tokarski
