When Zdeno Chara made it through practice on Friday, it was a sign that he could be ready to return to the lineup on Saturday. When the Bruins sent Steven Kampfer to Providence on Friday night, it was pretty obvious that Chara would be back.
Saturday morning, the Bruins made it official. Chara will be back on the blue line when Boston visits Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon in a showdown between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins captain returns after missing two games with a left leg injury suffered last Saturday against Columbus.
Forward Jordan Caron was also assigned to Providence on Friday night. With Gregory Campbell remaining back in Boston with a fractured foot, that leaves Zach Hamill in the lineup as the fourth-line center between Daniel Paille and Shawn Thornton.
The Flyers won’t be getting any reinforcements. They will continue to play without defensive stalwart Chris Pronger, who will miss the rest of the season with post-concussion syndrome, and leading scorer Claude Giroux, who is also out with a concussion.
Stephane Auger and Dan O’Halloran will be the referees, with Brad Kovachik and Tony Sericolo working the lines.
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Rich Peverley
Daniel Paille-Zach Hamill-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Gregory Campbell (foot)
Projected Flyers lines
Forwards
Scott Hartnell-Sean Couturier-Jaromir Jagr
Wayne Simmonds-Daniel Briere-Matt Read
James van Riemsdyk-Maxime Talbot-Jakub Voracek
Jody Shelley-Harry Zolnierczyk-Zac Rinaldo
Defense
Kimmo Timonen-Braydon Coburn
Matt Carle-Andrej Meszaros
Kevin Marshall-Marc-Andre Bourdon
Goalies
Ilya Bryzgalov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratches: Matt Walker, Brayden Schenn (upper body), Blair Betts, Erik Gustafsson (wrist), Claude Giroux (concussion)
