The Boston Bruins controlled play often Monday night against the Washington Capitals, so they’ll roll with the same 20 on Wednesday.
The first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series, tied at one game apiece, shifts back to Boston for Game 3. Puck drop is set for 6:30 p.m. ET on NESN, with pregame coverage beginning at 5:30.
As for the lineups, the Bruins plan on keeping things the same. Jeremy Lauzon is injured, so Connor Clifton will remain in the lineup, playing on the third defensive pairing with Kevan Miller. Clifton replaced the injured Lauzon for Game 2 and fared well. Miller did not take part in morning skate, which is typical in an effort to preserve his knee, and Bruce Cassidy confirmed he would be fine.
Cassidy tweaked the bottom six for Game 2, and he’ll keep it that way for Game 3. Charlie Coyle will center the third line, with Nick Ritchie on his left and Jake DeBrusk on his right. That puts Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner on the fourth line wings, with Curtis Lazar centering them.
For the Capitals, it’s unclear where their lineup stands because head coach Peter Laviolette refuses to share any information after morning skate. What we do know is that Lars Eller, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov all skated, while T.J. Oshie did not.
Tuukka Rask will be in net for the Bruins, with Craig Anderson likely opposing him.
Here are the projected lineups for Game 3 of Bruins-Capitals:
BOSTON BRUINS (1-1)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall–David Krejci–Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie–Charlie Coyle–Jake DeBrusk
Sean Kuraly–Curtis Lazar–Chris Wagner
Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Mike Reilly–Brandon Carlo
Connor Clifton–Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
WASHINGTON CAPITALS (1-1)
Alex Ovechkin–Evgeny Kuznetsov–Anthony Mantha
Conor Sheary–Nicklas Backstrom–Tom Wilson
Michael Raffl–Lars Eller–T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin–Nic Dowd–Garnet Hathaway
Dmitry Orlov–John Carlson
Brenden Dillon–Justin Schultz
Zdeno Chara–Nick Jensen
Craig Anderson
