The Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers are set to meet for Game 5 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series at TD Garden.
The major storyline going into Wednesday night’s game is the status of Patrice Bergeron, who missed the first four games of the best-of-seven set. Bergeron was a full participant at Tuesday’s Bruins practice and took part in Boston’s optional morning skate Wednesday. Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery confirmed Bergeron will play in Game 5 if “everything’s good” and Boston’s captain as of Tuesday afternoon wasn’t anticipating any setbacks.
And if Bergeron does make his 2023 postseason debut Wednesday, he might be a part of a new-look Bruins first line. Tuesday’s training session suggested Bergeron will reunite with former linemate David Pastrnak and also play alongside Tyler Bertuzzi. Bergeron himself embraced the idea of playing with new linemates, even though he and Brad Marchand have been such an impactful duo for so many years.
The Panthers also are poised to have a game-time decision or two with their lineup for Wednesday. But regardless of who’s out there for Florida, the visitors will have to be at their best if they want to extend their season.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for Panthers-Bruins Game 5:
BOSTON BRUINS (3-1)
Tyler Bertuzzi–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand–Charlie Coyle–Nick Foligno
Taylor Hall–Pavel Zacha–Jake DeBrusk
Jakub Lauko–Tomas Nosek–Garnet Hathaway
Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm–Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort–Dmitry Orlov
Linus Ullmark
FLORIDA PANTHERS (1-3)
Carter Verhaeghe–Aleksander Barkov–Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luoustarinen–Sam Bennett–Matthew Tkachuk
Ryan Lomberg–Anton Lundell–Anthony Duclair
Nick Cousins–Eric Staal–Colin White
Gustav Forsling–Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal–Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura–Radko Gudas
Alex Lyon
