The Bruins will look much different on Sunday night than they did on Saturday night. That probably goes without saying.
Boston is in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Sunday night where they will be without three of their regular forwards. Chris Kelly and Loui Eriksson are out with injuries while Shawn Thornton is awaiting to hear his fate from the league office. So the Bruins will turn to a trio of younger players in Jordan Caron, Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser.
Caron has been with the Bruins all year, although he’s spent most of the season as the 13th forward and a healthy scratch. Spooner and Fraser, however, are an interesting combination. According to pregame line rushes, they’ll be on the Boston third line together where they will look to continue their strong play from their time together in Providence. The team’s two leading scorers, Spooner and Fraser, have developed an undeniable chemistry that they’ll hope to continue in Boston with Carl Soderberg.
Caron is expected to skate on the fourth line, and Reilly Smith will move up to the second line.
On the Toronto side, it appears that Dion Phaneuf will be a late scratch. He left the ice early during pregame warmups.
Here are the rest of the projected lines for these Atlantic Division rivals.
Bruins (19-8-2, 40 points)
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Reilly Smith
Carl Soderberg — Ryan Spooner — Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Jordan Caron
Zdeno Chara — Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg — Matt Bartkowski
Torey Krug — Kevan Miller
Maple Leafs (16-11-3, 35 points)
James van Riemsdyk — Nazem Kadri — Phil Kessel
Mason Raymond — Trevor Smith — David Clarkson
Carter Ashton — Peter Holland — Nikolai Kulemin
Frazer McLaren — Jay McClement — Jerry D’Amigo
Dion Phaneuf– Carl Gunnarsson
Jake Gardiner– Cody Franson
John-Michael Liles — Paul Ranger
