BOSTON — The Bruins would like to do something Saturday night that they’ve done very little through five games against the Montreal Canadiens: Get a lead.
The B’s and Habs will meet Saturday night in Game 5 at TD Garden, and while the series is even entering the pivotal fifth game, Boston has been playing catch-up all series. The Bruins have led for less than a game, and they have yet to have a series lead in terms of games. They’ve preached better starts, which they got in Game 4 in Montreal, but playing with a lead is a foreign idea so far in this series.
Getting ahead, staying ahead and taking the series lead is even more important with the series now a best-of-three and home-ice advantage in Boston’s favor.
The Canadiens apparently are making a lineup change for the game. Brandon Prust is in the lineup in place of Daniel Briere. That move certainly takes away some team speed, but it does add some grit and toughness.
The Bruins’ lineup remains unchanged.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for both teams, based on the pregame warmups.
Bruins
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Reilly Smith
Matt Fraser — Carl Soderberg — Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara — Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski — Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug– Kevan Miller
Canadiens
Max Pacioretty — David Desharnais — Thomas Vanek
Michael Bournival — Tomas Plekanec — Brendan Gallagher
Rene Bourque — Lars Eller — Brian Gionta
Travis Moen — Brandon Prust — Dale Weise
Josh Gorge — P.K. Subban
Andrei Markov — Alexei Emelin
Douglas Murray — Mike Weaver
