Bruce Cassidy is keeping no secrets ahead of his team’s Stanley Cup round-robin opener.
The Boston Bruins head coach in a virtual press conference Sunday morning was more than willing to run down his entire lineup ahead of his team’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The biggest takeaway, of course, was Jaroslav Halak starting in net instead of Tukka Rask. Rask won’t even dress as he’s unfit to participate after missing Saturday’s practice because, in Cassidy’s words, he “wasn’t feeling well.” As a result, Dan Vladar will serve as Halak’s backup vs. Philly.
The other big lineup news is Jack Studnicka will indeed start the game on the second line alongside David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk, while both Anders Bjork and Karson Kuhlman will play and flank Charlie Coyle on the third line. Par Lindholm is the odd man out, as he’ll sit, and on the back end, John Moore is a healthy scratch.
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Here’s the Bruins’ lineup and the projected Flyers lines for Sunday’s tilt:
BOSTON BRUINS
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Jack Studnicka
Anders Bjork — Charlie Coyle — Karson Kuhlman
Joakim Nordstrom — Sean Kuraly — Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk — Jeremy Lauzon
Jaroslav Halak
Dan Vladar
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Claude Giroux — Sean Couturier — Jakub Voracek
Scott Laughton — Kevin Hayes — Travis Konecny
James van Riemsdyk — Derek Grant — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Michael Raffl — Nate Thompson — Tyler Pitlick
Ivan Provorov — Matt Niskanen
Travis Sanheim — Philippe Myers
Robert Hagg — Justin Braun
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott