The Boston Bruins have a chance to widen their new second-place lead in the Atlantic Division on Sunday when they face the Detroit Red Wings, but they’ll have to do it without one of their best players.
Bruins center Patrice Bergeron will miss his second straight game, Boston coach Claude Julien announced ahead of Sunday’s contest, after he appeared to suffer an undisclosed injury during a fight with the Winnipeg Jets’ Blake Wheeler on Thursday. Bergeron is still with the team on its current road trip, and Julien told reporters Bergeron is day-to-day.
The Bruins won their first game without Bergeron on Saturday, but the Red Wings present a much different challenge than the floundering Minnesota Wild. Boston and Detroit are locked in a close playoff battle, but the Bruins do have a 2-0 edge in the season series so far, including a thrilling 3-2 overtime win at Joe Louis Arena on Nov. 25.
Here are the projected lines and pairings for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINSÂ (30-19-6)
Brad Marchand — Ryan Spooner — Brett Connolly
Matt Beleskey — David Krejci — David Pastrnak
Loui Eriksson — Joonas Kemppainen — Jimmy Hayes
Zac Rinaldo — Max Talbot — Landon Ferraro
Zdeno Chara —Â Zach Trotman
Dennis Seidenberg —Â Colin Miller
Torey Krug —Â Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
DETROIT RED WINGS (28-18-9)
Henrik Zetterberg — Pavel Datsyuk — Justin Abdelkader
Tomas Tatar — Brad Richards — Dylan Larkin
Tomas Jurco — Andreas Athanasiou — Gus Nyquist
Darren Helm — Riley Sheahan — Luke Glendening
Kyle Quincey — Danny DeKeyser
Brendan Smith — Mike Green
Xavier Ouellet — Alexey Marchenko
Petr Mrazek
Thumbnail photo via Jean-Yves Ahern/USA TODAY Sports Images
