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

Folks, Bruins hockey is back.

Boston opens its 2022-23 NHL season Wednesday night on the road against the Washington Capitals. Both teams are dealing with injuries to core players, but the Caps and B’s also boast a couple of electric goal scorers in Alex Ovechkin and David Pastrnak.

David Krejci will play his first game in a Boston uniform since the 2019-20 season and center the second line that will feature all Czech players, including Pavel Zacha, who will make his Bruins debut after being traded for in the offseason. Taylor Hall, who originally was week-to-week with an upper-body injury, is in the lineup for Boston on the first line with Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk.

This also will be Jim Montgomery’s first game as Bruins head coach. All week, he was tight-lipped about who would start in net for Boston, but he revealed it looks as if Linus Ullmark will get the nod. Ullmark will oppose Darcy Kuemper, who’s fresh off a Stanley Cup championship with the Colorado Avalanche and signing with his new Capitals team.

After struggling for several years against Washington, Boston had its way with the Caps last season, winning two out of their three matchups and outscoring the Capitals 13-10.

Puck drop from Capital One Arena is set for 7 p.m. ET. The game will air on TNT, but NESN will provide an hour of pregame and postgame coverage.

Here are the projected lines and defense pairings for both teams:

BOSTON BRUINS (0-0-0)
Taylor Hall–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Pavel Zacha–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
A.J. Greer–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smith
Nick Foligno–Tomas Nosek–Jakub Lauko

Hampus Lindholm–Brandon Carlo
Mike Reilly–Connor Clifton
Derek Forbort–Jakub Zboril

Linus Ullmark

WASHINGTON CAPITALS (0-0-0)
Alex Ovechkin–Evgeny Kuznetsov–Connor Brown
Aliaksei Protas–Dylan Strome–Anthony Mantha
Marcus Johansson–Lars Eller–T.J. Oshie
Conor Sheary–Nic Dowd–Garnet Hathaway

Martin Fehervary–John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov–Nick Jensen
Erik Gustafsson–Trevor van Riemsdyk

Darcy Keumper

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