This one has been circled on the calendar for quite a while.
The Boston Bruins on Saturday will face the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. It’ll be the first game between the two sides this season, and the first time Zdeno Chara will face his former team since departing this offseason.
It also will mark the return of David Pastrnak, who missed the start of the campaign due to offseason hip surgery. But he’s good to go, and will take over his usual spot on the first line right wing.
Also making his season debut is Karson Kuhlman, who was called up from the taxi squad. He joins Nick Ritchie and David Krejci on the second line, skating on the right wing. Kuhlman draws in due to the absence of Jack Studnicka, who was banged up from a hit he took in Thursday’s win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That means Charlie Coyle is back to pivoting the third line. And with Pastrnak back, Craig Smith also will return to the third unit, reuniting the effective Trent Frederic-Coyle-Smith trio.
Matt Grzelcyk already had been ruled out for Saturday’s game, so Connor Clifton will again be on the second pairing with Brandon Carlo.
As for the Capitals, they’ll get some major reinforcements, as Alex Ovechkin has been activated from the COVID-19 list. Dmitry Orlov was, too, but it doesn’t appear he’s ready to return to the lineup yet.
Tuukka Rask will be in net for the Bruins, with Vitek Vanecek likely to go for Washington.
Here are the projected lineups for Saturday’s Bruins-Capitals game on NESN.
BOSTON BRUINS (5-1-1)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie–David Krejci–Karson Kuhlman
Trent Frederic–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smith
Anders Bjork–Sean Kuraly–Chris Wagner
Jeremy Lauzon–Charlie McAvoy
Connor Clifton–Brandon Carlo
Jakub Zboril–Matt Grzelcyk
Tuukka Rask
WASHINGTON CAPITALS (5-0-3)
Jakub Vrana–Nicklas Backstrom–Tom Wilson
Alex Ovechkin–T.J. Oshie–Richard Panik
Carl Hagelin–Nic Dowd–Garnet Hathaway
Conor Sheary–Michael Sgarbossa–Daniel Sprong
Zdeno Chara–John Carlson
Brendan Dillon–Trevor van Riemsdyk
Jonas Siegenthaler–Nick Jensen
Vitek Vanecek
