It won’t change anything that happened in June, but the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins are set to meet Saturday for the first time since the deciding game of the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Final.
It’s been north of four months and both teams have made clear they’ve moved on, but nevertheless the energy all but certainly will be through the roof of TD Garden.
The Bruins will be without David Krejci on Saturday, who will miss his fourth game due to an upper-body injury. And with Karson Kuhlman also out, the Bruins will continue to roll with a Jake DeBrusk-Charlie Coyle-Brett Ritchie second line.
Though Krejci is out, the Bruins will welcome the return of Joakim Nordstrom, who sustained an upper-body injury in last Thursday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’ll man his usual spot on the fourth line left wing alongside Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner. With Nordstrom back on the fourth line, Anders Bjork will get a chance on the third line in his second game of the season, joining Danton Heinen and Par Lindholm.
David Backes and Steven Kampfer will be healthy scratches.
The Blues aren’t fully healthy, as star winger Vladimir Tarasenko is out. Oskar Sundqvist will begin on the top line right wing as a result, but the expectation is a number of players could cycle through that spot.
As was the case through the entirety of the Cup Final, Tuukka Rask and Jordan Binnington will be in net.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (6-1-2)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–Charlie Coyle–Brett Ritchie
Anders Bjork–Par Lindholm–Danton Heinen
Joakim Nordstrom–Sean Kuraly–Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara–Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug–Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk–Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
ST. LOUIS BLUES (5-2-3)
Jaden Schwartz–Brayden Schenn–Oskar Sundqvist
Alex Steen–Ryan O’Reilly–David Perron
Zach Sanford–Tyler Bozak–Robert Thomas
Sammy Blais–Ivan Barbashev–Mackenzie MacEachern
Colton Parayko–Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester–Justin Faulk
Vince Dunn–Robert Bortuzzo
Jordan Binnington
