BOSTON — The Boston Bruins find themselves looking to snap a three-game losing streak, something they haven’t had to do since March of last season.
Boston welcomes the Florida Panthers to TD Garden on Tuesday night for the back end of a two-game homestand.
With Torey Krug on the shelf with an upper-body injury, Urho Vaakanainen will jump into the lineup on the Bruins’ third defensive pairing, joining Connor Clifton. The contest will be Vaakanainen’s third career game. Matt Grzelcyk will fill in for Krug on the power play unit.
David Backes (upper-body), Jake DeBrusk (lower-body) and Brett Richie (upper-body) all remain out of the lineup.
Former Bruin Noel Acciari has missed the Panthers’ last three games with a lower-body injury, but the 27-year-old is expected to make his return to the lineup Tuesday night as Florida’s fourth-line center. Acciari’s return likely will pay dividend’s for the Panthers’ penalty kill as well.
Two more ex-Bruins, forwards Frank Vatrano and Brett Connelly, will hit the ice on Florida’s third and second lines, respectively.
Tuukka Rask will start in net for the Bruins, with Sergei Bobrovsky expected to get the nod for the Panthers.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (11-3-3)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Danton Heinen — David Krejci — Charlie Coyle
Anders Bjork — Par Lindholm — Zach Senyshyn
Joakim Nordstrom — Sean Kuraly — Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk — Brandon Carlo
Urho Vaakanainen — Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
FLORIDA PANTHERS (8-4-5)
Jonathan Huberdeau — Aleksander Barkov — Evgenii Dadonov
Mike Hoffman — Brian Boyle — Brett Connolly
Frank Vatrano — Vincent Trocheck — Denis Malgin
Dryden Hunt — Noel Acciari — Colton Sceviour
Mike Matheson — Aaron Ekblad
Keith Yandle — Anton Stralman
Mark Pysyk — Josh Brown
Sergei Bobrovsky
