The Boston Bruins complete a three-game Western Conference road trip Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre.
This is the final regular-season meeting between these teams. Boston defeated Winnipeg 2-1 in overtime at TD Garden on Oct. 28.
Tuukka Rask was the first goalie off the ice at the Bruins’ morning skate Friday, which normally is an indication that he’ll start. Rask’s last appearance came Tuesday against the Nashville Predators, when he tied a season high with 38 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss.
The Jets have lost several of their best defensemen to injuries this season and still rank fourth in goals against average and eighth in penalty killing. Veteran defenseman Dustin Byfuglien is expected to be on the blue line full time with Mark Stuart out of the lineup with an injury. Byfuglien also plays right wing when needed.
Scoring goals has been a challenge for the Jets throughout the season, though. They rank 26th in shooting percentage, 23rd in goals scored per game and 21st in power-play success. That said, the Jets have been a quality puck possession team with a 52.65 Corsi-for percentage at even strength, the seventh-best mark in the league.
Here are the projected lineups for Bruins-Jets:
BOSTON BRUINS (16-13-3, sixth in Atlantic)
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Loui Eriksson
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Seth Griffith
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Craig Cunningham
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Zach Trotman
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
WINNIPEG JETS (16-10-6, fourth in Central)
Andrew Ladd-Bryan Little-Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault-Mark Scheifele-Michael Frolik
Evander Kane-Adam Lowry-Matt Halischuk
Chris Thorburn-Jim Slater-Anthony Peluso
Ben Chiarot-Dustin Byfuglien
Adam Pardy-Paul Postma
Grant Clitsome-Jay Harrison
Michael Hutchinson
