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

The Bruins look to make it eight straight wins Tuesday night when they welcome the Nashville Predators to TD Garden.

Boston is fresh off a shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday and can clinch the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed with a win and a Hurricanes regulation loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

After sitting out of Sunday’s win, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Hampus Lindholm are expected to return to the lineup. Jakub Lauko, who left Sunday’s game after going into the boards awkwardly, is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. But Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters that it’s “nothing a 23-year-old won’t get through in due time.”

A.J. Greer also will make his return to the fourth line after serving a one-game suspension for cross-checking Mike Hoffman in the Bruins’ win over the Montreal Canadiens last week.

Jakub Zboril will be the defenseman sitting Tuesday with Lindholm returning. Linus Ullmark will start between the pipes for the Bruins, opposite Juuse Saros.

Puck drop for Bruins-Preds from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action beginning at 6 p.m. on NESN.

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

BOSTON BRUINS (57-11-5)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Pavel Zacha–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
Tyler Bertuzzi–Charlie Coyle–Trent Frederic
A.J. Greer–Tomas Nosek–Garnet Hathaway

Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm–Brandon Carlo
Dmitry Orlov–Connor Clifton

Linus Ullmark

NASHVILLE PREDATORS (36-28-8)
Egor Afanasyev–Cody Glass–Philip Tomasino
Kiefer Sherwood–Tommy Novak–Luke Evangelista
Yakov Trenin–Colton Sissons–Cole Smith
Michael McCarron–Mark Jankowski–Rasmus Asplund

Ryan McDonagh–Dante Fabbro
Jeremy Lauzon–Tyson Barrie
Kevin Gravel–Cal Foote

Juuse Saros