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

The Bruins continue their West Coast road trip with the first game of a back-to-back when they play the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.

Boston is coming off a dominant 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center, but head coach Jim Montgomery and captain Brad Marchand know the team can play better amid an inconsistent run to start the season.

The Bruins still are undefeated to start the season, and they’ll face a Kings team that also has started the season well. The third line should give Boston’s defense some fits with Kevin Fiala leading the team with six assists and Pierre-Luc Dubois coming off a two-goal outing. And of course, Anze Kopitar always presents a difficult matchup.

Jake DeBrusk and Kevin Shattenkirk will be healthy scratches Saturday night. Montgomery told reporters DeBrusk was late to a team meeting.

Milan Lucic is expected to slot into the first line with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak, and the veteran skated with the second power-play unit. Patrick Brown and Ian Mitchell are expected to make their Bruins debuts Saturday night. Jeremy Swayman is expected to start between the pipes.

Puck drop for the Bruins-Kings matchup is scheduled at 10:30 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage on NESN starting at 9:30 p.m.

Here are the projected lines and pairings for Boston and Los Angeles.

BOSTON BRUINS (3-0-0)
Milan Luic — Pavel Zacha — David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand — Matthew Poitras — Morgan Geekie
James van Riemsdyk — Charlie Coyle — Trent Frederic
Jakub Lauko — Johnny Beecher — Patrick Brown

Matt Grzelcyk — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort — Ian Mitchell

Jeremy Swayman

LOS ANGELES KINGS (2-1-1)
Quinton Byfield — Anze Kopitar — Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore — Phillip Danault — Arthur Kaliyev
Kevin Fiala — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Alex Laferriere
Carl Grundstrom — Blake Lizottte — Trevor Lewis

Mikey Anderson — Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov — Matt Roy
Andreas Englund — Jordan Spence

Cam Talbot