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

After an event-filled offseason, the Bruins are back on the ice to kick off the 2023-24 NHL season.

Boston begins its centennial season against the Blackhawks on Wednesday. Chicago beat the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday after scoring four answered goals after a two-goal deficit. Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno will make their first returns to TD Garden after being traded to the Blackhawks this past offseason.

The Bruins enter a new era with Brad Marchand replacing Patrice Bergeron as captain after he and David Krejci retired. Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha step into the first and second center roles with new additions James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Geekie and Kevin Shattenkirk set to make their debuts.

Boston gets a familiar face back with Milan Lucic on the fourth line with Bruins 2019 first-round pick Johnny Beecer set to make his NHL debut along with 2022 second-round pick Matt Poitras, who impressed in the preseason and training camp.

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Head coach Jim Montgomery confirmed to reporters Wednesday that Linus Ullmark will get the start in net for the opener.

Puck drop for the Boston-Chicago matchup is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. ET. NESN will air pregame and postgame coverage of the matchup, as well as the centennial ceremony.

Here are the projected lines and pairings for the Bruins and Blackhawks.

BOSTON BRUINS
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Jake DeBrusk
James van Riemsdyk — Pavel Zacha — David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic — Matt Poitras — Morgan Geekie
Milan Lucic — Johnny Beecher — Jakub Lauko

Matt Grzelcyk — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort — Kevin Shattenkirk

Linus Ullmark

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
Taylor Hall — Connor Bedard — Ryan Donato
Tyler Johnson — Lukas Reichel — Taylor Raddysh
Boris Katchouk — Cole Guttman — Andreas Athanasiou
Corey Perry — Jason Dickinson — Nick Foligno

Alex Vlasic — Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski — Connor Murphy
Jarred Tinordi — Wyatt Kaiser

Arvid Soderblom