Bruins, Canucks Likely to Stick With Same Lineups for Game 6 Clash at TD Garden

BOSTON — Heading into the sixth game of this Stanley Cup Final, the feeling-out process is long over and the Bruins and Canucks know what to expect from each other.

They also have a pretty good idea of what they need to do and who they have available to do it, so there aren't likely to be many, if any, lineup changes for Game 6 at the Garden on Monday.

The Bruins' biggest question will be how to fill the void left by the loss of Nathan Horton, who has been sidelined with a concussion caused by Aaron Rome's late hit early in Game 3. Rich Peverley, Michael Ryder and Tyler Seguin have all seen time in Horton's spot on the top line since he went down, and Bruins coach Claude Julien expects to continue to work multiple players into that spot.

"It's been by design," Julien said after Monday's morning skate. "We talked about that when Horton went down. I had to use different players, so that's exactly what I've done."

That rotating cast on the right side of the line has made it tough for center David Krejci and left wing Milan Lucic to form much cohesion with the various replacements, though Peverley did chip in a pair of goals on that line in Game 4.

"As a line, me and Looch have basically played every time with a different guy and it's hard to get the chemistry going," Krejci said. "But now we are at home and we have the last-change advantage so it should be fine [Monday night]."

The Canucks aren't likely to change their lineup either after their revamped defense helped shut out Boston in Game 5. Rookie defenseman Christopher Tanev played his first game of the Final that night and figures to remain on the blue line with Rome suspended, Dan Hamhuis injured and Keith Ballard relegated to the press box after struggling mightily in Game 4.

Up front, the Canucks inserted Tanner Glass on the fourth line two games ago. He missed a wide-open net when he fanned on a shot in Game 5, but Vancouver will likely keep him in the lineup as the Dartmouth product is one of the Canucks' more physical players and the Bruins are sure to try to set a physical tone in this one.

Projected Bruins lines

Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Rich Peverley
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
Michael Ryder-Chris Kelly-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: Nathan Horton (concussion), Shane Hnidy, Steven Kampfer, Jordan Caron, Matt Bartkowski, Jamie Arniel, Trent Whitfield, Anton Khudobin

Projected Canucks lines

Forwards
Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Alex Burrows
Christopher Higgins-Ryan Kesler-Mason Raymond
Raffi Torres-Maxim Lapierre-Jannik Hansen
Tanner Glass-Manny Malhotra-Victor Oreskovich

Defense
Kevin Bieksa-Alexander Edler
Sami Salo-Christian Ehrhoff
Christopher Tanev-Andrew Alberts

Goalies
Roberto Luongo
Cory Schneider

Scratches: Dan Hamhuis (undisclosed injury), Aaron Rome (suspended), Keith Ballard, Alexandre Bolduc, Jeff Tambellini, Aaron Volpatti, Cory Hodgson, Sergei Shirokov, Eddie Lack