The Bruins continue their road trip Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks, a team that Boston has beaten three straight times.
San Jose has been one of the elite NHL teams for nearly a decade, but this season has been a bit of a struggle. The Sharks are two points out of a playoff spot and have a minus-1 goal differential and just four wins in 10 home games. They also aren’t getting consistent scoring production from the bottom two lines.
Sharks center Logan Couture, who leads the team with 22 points, is a game-time decision for Thursday after leaving Tuesday’s matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers early. Antti Niemi will start in goal for San Jose, per Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area. The veteran goaltender gave up four goals on 32 shots in a 5-3 loss to the Bruins on Oct. 21.
The Bruins’ lineup should look similar to the one used in Tuesday night’s 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Tuukka Rask is expected to start in net after getting a rest against the Kings. He’s  7-3-1 since the start of November.
We also might see Seth Griffith make a return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch in the first two games of this road trip. The 21-year-old winger is tied for second on the team in goals scored with five. We’ll know more about the lineup after the pre-game skate.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (14-11-1, 5th in Atlantic)
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak
Milan Lucic-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Reilly Smith-Chris Kelly-Matt Fraser/Seth Griffith
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Simon Gagne
Dennis Seidenberg-Torey Krug
Joe Morrow-Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski-Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
SAN JOSE SHARKS (12-10-4, 5th in Pacific)
Tomas Hertl-Joe Thornton-Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau-Logan Couture-Tommy Wingels
Tyler Kennedy-James Sheppard-Matt Nieto
Mike Brown-Andrew Desjardins-John Scott
Justin Braun-Marc-Edouard-Vlasic
Brent Burns-Brenden Dillon
Scott Hannan-Matt Irwin
Antti Niemi
Thumbnail photo via Ed Mulholland/USA TODAY Sports Images
