The first-line center skated at practice on Wednesday and was once again out on the ice for morning skate Thursday morning. If that wasn’t enough of an indication that he was going to be ready to go, B’s coach Claude Julien confirmed it following morning skate.
The Bruins, however, will be without Carl Soderberg who is still battling an ankle injury. The Swedish forward is expected to be replaced on the third-line left wing by Jordan Caron. The Bruins are without a 13th forward until Friday at the earliest when Soderberg can be activated off of injured reserve, but Julien doesn’t expect the club to make any moves to ensure they have an extra forward into the weekend.
“I think right now we’ve got all the players that we need for tonight,” he said Thursday morning. “Krejci’s in so we don’t need an extra player just to bring in to watch a game here. We feel that he’s getting close enough that right now there’s no need to bring anybody up. If need be, they’re usually close by.”
Here are the projected lines for the Bruins and Lightning
Bruins
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Loui Eriksson
Jordan Caron — Chris Kelly — Reilly Smith
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Daniel Paille
Zdeno Chara — Johnny Boychuk
Dougie Hamilton — Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug — Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Lightning
Ryan Malone — Steven Stamkos — Martin St. Louis
Alex Killorn — Valtteri Filppula — Teddy Purcell
Ondrej Palat — Tyler Johnson — Richar Panik
Pierre-Cedric Labrie — Nate Thompson — B.J. Crombeen
Victor Hedman — Sami Salo
Matt Carle — Radko Gudas
Andrej Sustr — Eric Brewer
Anders Lindback
