The Boston Bruins are set to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, and the lineup will be shaken up a little bit.
David Krejci landed on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury suffered last week, so the Bruins called up Anders Bjork on Tuesday to take his place. It won’t take long for Bjork to get in the lineup, as he’s expected to skate on the fourth line with Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner in the left wing role made available by Joakim Nordstrom’s injury.
“I put (Bjork) on that line because I think he has certainly some of what Nordy brings on that line,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy explained after Tuesday’s morning skate, via the team’s Twitter account. “They’re effective because they’re hard to play against. Some of them are tenacious, some of them are on pucks, some are both. I think his defensive game has improved, so we’ll see if he’s prepared for that, so that was the thinking there. And he’s got two very responsible players, he can add a little offense to that group, there’s not a lot of pressure for him to go out and necessarily score. We’ll see how he plays up here and then decide what the best fit is. But Nordy won’t play tonight so it’s a good time for him to go in there.”
Karson Kuhlman is getting X-rays after taking a Jake DeBrusk shot to the leg during Saturday’s shootout loss to the Leafs, so he won’t be available Tuesday. With Kuhlman out, Brett Ritchie will rejoin Charlie Coyle and DeBrusk on the second line, with David Backes, Par Lindholm and Danton Heinen skating together on the third trio.
Tuukka Rask will play in his 500th game Tuesday, so it’s only appropriate it’s against Toronto. With the Leafs on the second night of a back-to-back, Michael Hutchinson likely will be in net.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (5-1-2)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–Charlie Coyle–Brett Ritchie
Danton Heinen–Par Lindholm–David Backes
Anders Bjork–Sean Kuraly–Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara–Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug–Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk–Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (5-3-2)
Andreas Johnsson–Auston Matthews–William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev–Alexander Kerfoot–Mitch Marner
Trevor Moore–Jason Spezza–Kasperi Kapanen
Dmytro Timashov–Nick Shore–Frederik Gauthier
Morgan Rielly–Cody Ceci
Jake Muzzin–Tyson Barrie
Martin Marincin–Justin Holl
Michael Hutchinson
