There will be a few fresh faces taking the ice for the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night against the Penguins.
The stumbling B’s take on Pittsburgh in the second leg of a back-to-back, and Boston will trot out a pair of prospects in goalie Dan Vladar and forward Oskar Steen.
With Jaroslav Halak shouldering all of the load with Tuukka Rask injured, the plan long had been for Vladar or Jeremy Swayman to get an opportunity in net during one of the games against the Pens. The Bruins are electing to go with Vladar, who only has appeared in mop-up duty in the NHL and will be making his first start. Halak will back him up.
Steen makes his NHL debut after 72 games in the minors with Providence across two seasons. A right-shot forward who is a natural center, Steen will play on the third line opposite Nick Ritchie with Charlie Coyle between them. Anders Bjork will be a healthy scratch as a result.
Steen, 23, always has looked good during development and training camps, and now he’s getting a chance to prove he can hack it in the NHL. He has 31 points (10-21-31) across those 72 AHL games.
No other changes are expected for the Bruins.
As for the Penguins, John Marino and Jared McCann are game-time decisions. If Marino plays, he’ll likely go to the third pairing with Marcus Petterson, with Chad Ruhwedel getting healthy scratched as a result. McCann would go in on the second line, knocking Evan Rodrigues to the fourth line and Anthony Angello out of the lineup.
Casey DeSmith will start in net for the Pens.
Here are the projected lineups for Tuesday’s Bruins-Penguins game.
BOSTON BRUINS (14-8-4, 32 points)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–David Krejci–Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie–Charlie Coyle–Oskar Steen
Trent Frederic–Sean Kuraly–Karson Kuhlman
Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Jakub Zboril–Connor Clifton
Jarred Tinordi–Steven Kampfer
Dan Vladar
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (18-9-1, 37 points)
Jake Guentzel–Sidney Crosby–Bryan Rust
Jared McCann–Evgeni Malkin–Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Aston-Reese–Teddy Blueger–Brandon Tanev
Colton Sceviour–Mark Jankowski–Evan Rodrigues
Brian Dumoulin–Kris Letang
Mike Matheson–Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson–John Marino
Tristan Jarry
