TD Garden will host a 2011 Stanley Cup Final rematch Sunday evening when the Bruins and Canucks meet for the first time in the 2022-23 NHL season.
The cross-conference collision will mark the second night of a back-to-back for the B’s, who secured a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday night. Despite being days into his return from injury, Charlie McAvoy is expected to take the ice for a second consecutive contest. Prior to the game against the Sabres, Boston head coach Jim Montgomery said McAvoy “feels really good” and wouldn’t need to take a night off this weekend.
Boston is expected to make a change in between the pipes, however. Keith Kinkaid is projected to return to the bench after a 30-save performance in his Bruins debut, paving the way for Linus Ullmark to make his way back into the starting lineup. Ullmark enters Sunday as the NHL goaltending leader in wins (10) and ranks second in both save percentage (.936) and goals against average (1.95).
As for the visitors, Jack Studnicka is in line to play his first road game in Boston. Studnicka, a 2017 second-round draft pick by the Bruins, was traded to Vancouver in late October.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for Saturday’s Canucks-Bruins game.
BRUINS (13-2-0)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic–Charlie Coyle–Pavel Zacha
Nick Foligno–Tomas Nosek–A.J. Greer
Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm–Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril–Brandon Carlo
Linus Ullmark
CANUCKS (4-8-3)
Ilya Mikheyev–J.T. Miller–Brock Boeser
Andrei Kuzmenko–Elias Pettersson–Nils Hoglander
Vasily Podkolzin–Bo Horvat–Connor Garland
Dakota Joshua–Nils Aman–Jack Studnicka
Quinn Hughes–Tyler Myers
Oliver Ekman-Larsson–Ethan Bear
Riley Stillman–Luke Schenn
Thatcher Demko
