BOSTON — The Bruins look to extend their win streak to two when they welcome the Wild to TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.
Boston is fresh off a 2-1 shootout win while Minnesota finally got its first victory of the 2022-23 season over the Vancouver Canucks in overtime.
The excitement will begin even before the puck drops as Zdeno Chara, who signed a one-day contract with the Bruins in September in order to retire with the organization, will drop the ceremonial first puck.
The Bruins will roll out the same top six, but the bottom six could look a tad different. Craig Smith, after being healthy scratched the last two games, will slot back on the third line with Trent Frederic and Charlie Coyle. Jack Studnicka, after a rough season debut Thursday, is the healthy scratch. Jakub Lauko also returns to the lineup.
Linus Ullmark will start between the pipes for the Bruins after a 30-save performance against the Anaheim Ducks.
Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 1 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action on NESN beginning at 12 p.m. with “Bruins Breakaway Live.”
Here are the projected lines and defense pairings for Bruins-Wild.
BOSTON BRUINS (4-1-0)
Pavel Zacha–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic–Charlie Coyle–Craig Smith
Nick Foligno–Tomas Nosek–Jakub Lauko
Hampus Lindholm–Matt Grzelcyk
Derek Forbort–Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril–Mike Reilly
Linus Ullmark
MINNESOTA WILD (1-3-0)
Kirill Kaprizov–Ryan Hartman–Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno–Joel Eriksson Ek–Tyson Jost
Frederick Gaudreau–Marco Rossi–Matthew Boldy
Brandon Duhaime–Sam Steel–Connor Dewar
Jacob Middleton–Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin–Matthew Dumba
Alex Goligoski– Calen Addison
Marc-Andre Fleury
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