Berkshire Bank Hockey Night In New England: Projected Bruins-Devils Lines, Pairings

It’s been a minute since the Boston Bruins last played, affording Bruce Cassidy time to think about how to shake things up.

Injuries and ineffectiveness have led the Bruins to make a few changes to the lineup ahead of Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden. It’ll be Boston’s first game since losing to the New York Islanders on Saturday.

With both Jakub Zboril and Matt Grzelcyk unavailable, Connor Clifton and John Moore will be in the lineup. Clifton will skate on his off side, playing the left side of the second pairing with Brandon Carlo. Moore will pair up with Kevan Miller.

Up front, Cassidy is attempting to get both David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk going, and the results are tweaks to all four lines.

DeBrusk will skate on the first line right wing, while David Pastrnak joins Krejci and Nick Ritchie on the second trio. The Bruins will return to using the Trent Frederic-Charlie Coyle-Craig Smith third line, meaning Anders Bjork will play alongside Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner as the fourth unit.

Jaroslav Halak will be in net, and likely will be opposed by Mackenzie Blackwood

Here are the projected lineups for Thursday’s Devils-Bruins game:

BOSTON BRUINS (10-2-2)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Nick Ritchie–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smith
Anders Bjork–Sean Kuraly–Chris Wagner

Jeremy Lauzon–Charlie McAvoy
Connor Clifton–Brandon Carlo
John Moore-Kevan Miller

Jaroslav Halak

NEW JERSEY DEVILS (5-3-2)
Andreas Johnsson–Jack Hughes–Jesper Bratt
Yegor Sherangovich–Mikhail Maltsev–Kyle Palmieri
Janne Kuokkanen–Pavel Zacha–Nick Merkley
Miles Wood–Michael McLeod–Nathan Bastian

Damon Severson–P.K. Subban
Ty Smith–Matt Tennyson
Will Butcher–Connor Carrick

Mackenzie Blackwood

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