BOSTON — The Bruins and New York Rangers, the two teams occupying the wild-card playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, clash at TD Garden on Thursday night.
The Rangers did not have a morning skate, but we do know that starting goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will get the night off. Backup netminder Cam Talbot will start and end a lengthy Lundqvist streak of consecutive appearances against the B’s.
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Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said top-six center Derek Stepan is improving but won’t play Thursday because of an upper body injury. Matt Hunwick will enter the New York lineup and replace John Moore on the blue line.
The Bruins used the same lines and pairings at the morning skate that they did to end Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
David Pastrnak is playing in his ninth game, the maximum amount before the Bruins must decide whether to keep him in the NHL and burn the first year of his entry-level contract or send him to Providence in the AHL. B’s head coach Claude Julien said Thursday morning that Pastrnak’s evaluation is ongoing.
Tuukka Rask is expected to be Boston’s starting goaltender.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINSÂ (23-15-6, fourth in Atlantic)
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Craig Cunningham
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
NEW YORK RANGERSÂ (24-12-4, fourth in Metropolitan)
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-J.T. Miller-Martin St. Louis
Carl Hagelin-Dominic Moore-Lee Stempniak
Tanner Glass-Kevin Hayes-Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Dan Boyle
Kevin Klein-Matt Hunwick
Cam Talbot
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
