BOSTON — The Bruins will look to avoid playing host to a Detroit Red Wings playoff-clinching party Thursday night as they welcome to the Wings to TD Garden for the penultimate game of their regular season.
The Red Wings can clinch the Atlantic Division’s third and final playoff spot with a regulation, overtime or shootout win over Boston. The Bruins, who trail the Wings by two points in the divisional standings, can neither clinch nor be eliminated Thursday — even with a loss, they still could earn a wild-card berth — but a loss would make their path to the postseason exponentially more difficult.
Bruins coach Claude Julien will make just one change to his lineup for the game, inserting veteran Max Talbot in place of injured winger Jimmy Hayes. Talbot, who was recalled from Providence on Wednesday, has played in 36 games for the B’s this season but none since Feb. 20.
UPDATE (6:38 p.m. ET): Julien did alter his line combinations a bit, however, slotting Talbot in as his third-line center and moving Ryan Spooner to left wing on the second line. That bumped Matt Beleskey down to the third line and Frank Vatrano to the fourth.
Lee Stempniak also moved back to the spot he previously occupied at first-line left wing, with Loui Eriksson rejoining David Krejci on the second line.
Here are the projected lines and pairing for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (41-30-9)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Lee Stempniak
Ryan Spooner — David Krejci — Loui Eriksson
Matt Beleskey — Max Talbot — David Pastrnak
Frank Vatrano — Noel Acciari — Landon Ferraro
Zdeno Chara — Kevan Miller
John-Michael Liles — Colin Miller
Torey Krug — Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
DETROIT RED WINGS (41-28-11)
Justin Abdelkader — Henrik Zetterberg — Dylan Larkin
Darren Helm — Pavel Datsyuk — Brad Richards
Gustav Nyquist — Riley Sheahan — Tomas Tatar
Andreas Athanasiou — Luke Glendening — Tomas Jurco
Danny DeKeyser — Kyle Quincey
Niklas Kronwall — Alexey Marchenko
Jonathan Ericsson — Mike Green
Jimmy Howard
Thumbnail photo via Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
