Will the Boston Bruins be short of manpower as they look to beat the Minnesota Wild and extend their winning streak to four games?
Patrice Bergeron’s availability for Bruins-Wild is in question ahead of Wednesday night’s matchup. He played Tuesday in Boston’s overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks, but The Boston Globe’s Kevin-Paul Dupont suggests via Twitter the Bruins captain might be a healthy scratch from Bruins-Wild, with Jack Studnicka taking his place on the top line.
That would be the only change to the Bruins’ forward lines and pairings, as head coach Bruce Cassidy likely will stick with the same combinations that have helped Boston win eight of its last 10 games.
Cassidy, however, will rotate his goaltenders, with Jeremy Swayman starting in Minnesota and Linus Ullmark returning to the bench.
Wednesday marks the second, and final, Bruins-Wild matchup of the season. Minnesota beat Boston 3-2 on Jan. 6 at TD Garden in their most-recent meeting.
TNT will air Bruins versus Wild. Puck drop from Xcel Energy Center. is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for Bruins-Wild:
BOSTON BRUINS (37-18-5)
Brad Marchand–Jack Studnicka/Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall–Erik Haula–David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smith
Nick Foligno–Tomas Nosek–Curtis Lazar
Mike Reilly — Charlie McAvoy
Jack Ahcan — Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort — Connor Clifton
Jeremy Swayman
MINNESOTA WILD (34-20-4)
Kirill Kaprizov–Ryan Hartman–Mats Zuccarello
Kevin Fiala–Frederick Gaudreau–Matthew Boldy
Jordan Greenway–Joel Eriksson Ek–Marcus Foligno
Brandon Duhaime–Tyson Jost–Nick Bjugstad
Jonas Brodin–Mathew Dumba
Alex Goligoski–Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill–Dmitry Kulikov
Cam Talbot
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