The Boston Bruins will enter Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild at TD Garden with a young, inexperienced goalie tandem.
Malcolm Subban and Zane McIntyre, the two Providence Bruins netminders, will dress for Boston with starter Tuukka Rask (undisclosed injury) and backup Anton Khudobin (upper body injury) both unavailable. The Bruins announced Tuesday that Khudobin will miss three weeks, and that McIntyre was recalled on an emergency basis.
Subban was the first goalie off the ice at morning skate and will start, per B’s head coach Claude Julien.
Julien confirms Subban will start in goal. "Opportunity for him to play well and show he can play in the NHL."
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 25, 2016
Veteran forward David Backes also was not present for the morning skate and won’t play against the Wild.
Julien also says David Backes is out tonight with a "minor issue, he's day to day."
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 25, 2016
Defenseman Adam McQuaid will make his season debut after missing the first five games because of an injury, per Julien. Young defenseman Rob O’Gara was assigned to Providence as well.
This game is Minnesota’s only trip to Boston of the season unless these teams meet in the Stanley Cup Final. The Wild are 0-2-1 on the road and have lost the first two games of their four-game East Coast road trip. Minnesota also has been outscored 11-6 away from home.
The Wild made some notable changes in the offseason. They fired head coach Mike Yeo and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau. They also signed veteran center Eric Staal and claimed young winger Teemu Pulkkinen off of waivers to provide much-needed scoring depth.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams.
BOSTON BRUINS (3-2-0)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Matt Beleskey–David Krejci–Danton Heinen
Dominic Moore–Ryan Spooner–Jimmy Hayes
Tim Schaller–Riley Nash–Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara–Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug–Adam McQuaid
John-Michael Liles–Colin Miller
Malcolm Subban
MINNESOTA WILD (3-2-1)
Zach Parise–Mikko Koivu–Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter–Eric Staal–Charlie Coyle
Teemu Pulkkinen–Joel Eriksson Ek–Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker–Zac Dalpe–Chris Stewart
Ryan Suter–Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin–Christian Folin
Marco Scandella–Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
