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

The Bruins’ preseason slate will come to a close Wednesday night, but not before Boston trots out the bulk of its regulars.

TD Garden will play host to a meeting between the Bruins and Washington Capitals, and both sides are icing rosters that might, to at least some degree, resemble their collection of Opening Night players.

That means Charlie Coyle will make his preseason debut for the Bruins, centering the second line with Taylor Hall to his left and Craig Smith to his right. The Bruins also will stick with the Jake DeBrusk, Erik Haula, Nick Foligno third line to round out the middle six.

The big question for Wednesday is the Bruins’ fourth line. During morning skate, Trent Frederic, Tomas Nosek and Curtis Lazar skated as that group, which would seem to indicate they will be playing in the preseason finale.

However, the Bruins also had a Anton Blidh-Jack Studnicka-Chris Wagner line going, as well, with Karson Kuhlman skating as another extra. They all are on the roster for Wednesday, but obviously not all of them will play. The group that does might be telling as Boston develops its opening-night lineup.

Defensively, the Bruins likely will go with their six “regulars,” with Derek Forbort alongside Charlie McAvoy on the top pairing, meaning Mike Reilly and Brandon Carlo are in the second pairing, and Matt Grzelcyk goes with Connor Clifton in the third. Jakub Zboril and John Moore were on a spare pairing together in Brighton and also are listed on the roster. They are likely healthy scratches.

Linus Ullmark is slated to play all 60 minutes Wednesday, but Jeremy Swayman and Troy Grosenick also are listed on the gameday roster.

Here are the projected lineups for Wednesday’s Bruins-Capitals game.

BOSTON BRUINS
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smth
Jake DeBrusk–Erik Haula–Nick Foligno
Trent Frederic–Tomas Nosek–Curtis Lazar

Derek Forbort–Charlie McAvoy
Mike Reilly–Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk–Connor Clifton

Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman

WASHINGTON CAPITALS
Alex Ovechkin–Evgeny Kuznetsov–Tom Wilson
Anthony Mantha-Lars Eller–Daniel Sprong
Conor Sheary–Connor McMichael–T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin–Nic Dowd–Garnet Hathaway

Trevor van Riemsdyk–John Carlson
Michal Kempny–Justin Schultz
Dmitry Orlov–Nick Jensen

Vitek Vanecek
Zach Fucale