The Boston Bruins will try to solidify their hold on second place in the Atlantic Division against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday. Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Boston is six points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs with four games to go in the regular season, inching closer to locking up home-ice for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Boston lost 4-1 to the Florida Panthers on Saturday, its second loss in the past three games.
Playing the second leg of their final back-to-back of the season, Bruce Cassidy is expecting to shuffle his lines up a bit after Saturday’s loss.
David Pastrnak will move back up to the top line, flanking Patrice Bergeron opposite Brad Marchand.
The Bruins also will trot out their full stable of defensemen, with Kevan Miller joining the lineup after a 16-game absence. He will join Matt Grzelcyk on Boston’s third pairing. Brandon Carlo and Torey Krug will be the second pairing with Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy manning the top pair.
Jaroslav Halak will be between the pipes for Boston, while Detroit is expected to counter with Jimmy Howard.
Here are the projected lines and defense pairings for Saturday’s Bruins-Panthers game:
BOSTON BRUINS (47-22-9)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Marcus Johansson
Danton Heinen — Charlie Coyle — Chris Wagner
Joakim Nordstrom — Noel Acciari — David Backes
Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk — Kevan Miller
Jaroslav Halak
DETROIT RED WINGS (30-38-10)
Tyler Bertuzzi — Dylan Larkin — Anthony Mantha
Matt Puempel — Andreas Athanasiou — Taro Hirose
Darren Helm — Christoffer Egan — Ryan Kuffner
Martin Frk — Dominic Turgeon — Jake Chelios
Dan Dekeyser — Filip Hronek
Niklas Kronwall — Madison Bowey
Dylan McIlrath — Luke Witkowski
Jimmy Howard
