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

The Bruins will put an end to their (absurdly) long break Thursday night, meeting the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center in a late-night clash.

Boston is coming off back-to-back wins at TD Garden, opening the season with a win over the Chicago Blackhawks and moving to 2-0 with a victory over the Nashville Predators.

The undefeated start wasn’t enough to prevent Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery from tinkering, however. Boston’s lines will look wholly different Thursday, with the top three lines all being shuffled in an effort to produce better five-on-five offense.

Matthew Poitras will be moving to the top line, centering Brad Marchand and Morgan Geekie after spending the first two games on the third line. That move will push Charlie Coyle to the third line, where he’ll join Trent Frederic and James van Riemsdyk, who is dropping from the second line. Jake DeBrusk will replace JVR on the second line.

San Jose enters the matchup on a three-game losing skid. The Sharks have been outscored 12-5 in losses to the Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Panthers.

The Bruins will start Linus Ullmark between the pipes, giving him his second start of the season after leading the way in Boston’s win over the Chicago Blackhawks in the season opener. Jeremy Swayman got the start against Nashville.

Boston and San Jose will drop the puck from the SAP Center at 10:30 p.m. ET. The game’s coverage can be found on NESN starting at 10 p.m., so get a pot of coffee on.

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

BOSTON BRUINS (2-0-0)
Brad Marchand — Matthew Poitras — Morgan Geekie
Jake DeBrusk — Pavel Zacha — David Pastrnak
James van Riemsdyk — Charlie Coyle — Trent Frederic
Milan Lucic — Johnny Beecher — Jakub Lauko

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

Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman

SAN JOSE SHARKS (0-2-1)
Anthony Duclair — Tomas Hertl — Filip Zadina
William Eklund — Thomas Bordeleau — Mike Hoffman
Alexander Barabanov — Jacob Peterson — Labanc
Fabian Zetterlund — Nico Sturm — Givani Smith

Mario Ferraro — Kyle Burroughs
Henry Thrun — Matt Benning
Nikolai Knyzhov — Jan Rutta

Kaapo Kahkonen
Mackenzie Blackwood