Chris Wagner’s absence will be short-lived, and he’ll quickly be thrown into a somewhat new role.
The Boston Bruins on Tuesday will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Wagner is set to make his return after missing Saturday’s win with an upper-body injury, while the B’s could be without Brad Marchand.
Marchand is considered a game-time decision after waking up under the weather Tuesday morning. If he’s unable to go, Jake DeBrusk will skate on the first line with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, while Anders Bjork will be on the third line. If Marchand does play, DeBrusk will bump down to the third unit, and Bjork will be a healthy scratch, thus continuing the message head coach Bruce Cassidy is conveying to the 23-year-old winger.
Regardless, Charlie Coyle and Wagner will be the two other third line forwards, resulting in the Sean Kuraly-Par Lindholm-Joakim Nordstrom fourth line from Boston’s win over the New York Islanders sticking together. David Krejci will continue being flanked by new Bruins Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie.
The Bruins’ defense is expected to remain the same, while Tuukka Rask will be in net.
Here are the projected lineups for Bruins-Lightning.
BOSTON BRUINS (41-13-12)
Jake DeBrusk–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie–David Krejci–Ondrej Kase
Anders Bjork–Charlie Coyle–Chris Wagner
Sean Kuraly–Par Lindholm–Joakim Nordstrom
Zdeno Chara–Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug–Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk–Jeremy Lauzon
Tuukka Rask
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (41-19-5)
Ondrej Palat–Brayden Point–Nikita Kucherov
Blake Coleman–Anthony Cirelli–Alex Killorn
Barclay Goodrow–Tyler Johnson–Yanni Gourde
Patrick Maroon–Mitchell Stephens–Cedric Paquette
Victor Hedman–Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev–Kevin Shattenkirk
Braydon Coburn–Zach Bogosian
Andrei Vasilevskiy
