The Bruins will get some reinforcement back when they wrap up their homestand Thursday night.
Charlie McAvoy returns to Boston’s lineup for the first time this season when the B’s take on the Calgary Flames.
It’s been quite the start to the season for the Black and Gold, who have won four of their last five games and sit atop the Atlantic Division standings. The Flames, meanwhile, have lost six straight.
With McAvoy back on the blue line and Mike Reilly being waived Wednesday, Anton Stralman is the odd-man out. McAvoy will skate alongside Matt Grzelcyk, but head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters he’d shuffle McAvoy around a little bit throughout the game.
A.J. Greer will be the healthy scratch up front with Craig Smith skating on the fourth line with Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek. Linus Ullmark will make his sixth consecutive start, opposite of Dan Vladar, who the Bruins traded to the Flames in July.
Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET and you can catch all the action on NESN beginning at 6:30 p.m. with “Bruins Face-Off LIVE.”
Here are the projected lines and defense pairings for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (11-2-0)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic-Charlie Coyle–Pavel Zacha
Nick Foligno–Tomas Nosek–Craig Smith
Hampus Lindholm–Connor Clifton
Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Jakub Zboril–Brandon Carlo
Linus Ullmark
CALGARY FLAMES (5-5-2)
Adam Ruzicka–Elias Lindholm–Tyler Toffoli
Dillon Dube–Nazem Kadri–Blake Coleman
Andrew Mangiapane–Mikael Backlund–Trevor Lewis
Milan Lucic– Kevin Rooney–Brett Ritchie
Noah Hanifin–Rasmus Andersson
Nikita Zadorov–MacKenzie Weegar
Dennis Gilbert–Nick DeSimone
Dan Vladar
Presented by Berkshire Bank. The official Bank of NESN’s Boston Bruins Coverage.
