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

The Bruins on Saturday have an Original Six matchup on deck as they also will honor another era during their centennial season.

Boston will honor the “New Blood, New Beginnings” era that spanned 1986-2000. This was a time of transition and fresh beginnings for the franchise when Ray Bourque and Rick Middleton joined forces with new talent such as Cam Neely and Reggie Lemelin. The Bruins of this era reached two Stanley Cup Final appearances in 1988 and 1990.

The Black and Gold will hold a pregame ceremony to look back at when the Bruins broke the Montreal “jinx” on April 26, 1988.

As for Saturday’s matchup against the Canadiens, Boston will get Brandon Carlo, Matthew Poirtas, Derek Forbort and Linus Ullmark back from injury. Mason Lohrei, Parker Wotherspoon, Oskar Steen and Johnny Beecher are expected to be healthy scratches.

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Puck drop for Bruins-Canadiens is scheduled at 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage on NESN starting at 6 p.m.

Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for both sides.

BOSTON BRUINS (27-8-9)
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — David Pastrnak
James van Riemsdyk — Pavel Zacha — Jake DeBrusk
Trent Frederic — Matthew Poitras — Morgan Geekie
Danton Heinen — Jesper Boqvist — Jakub Lauko

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

Linus Ullmark

MONTREAL CANADIENS (19-19-7)
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Josh Anderson — Jake Evans — Brendan Gallagher
Joshua Roy — Sean Monahan — Joel Armia
Rafael Harvey-Pinard — Mitchell Stephens — Michael Pezzetta

Mike Matheson — David Savard
Jayden Struble — Kaiden Guhle
Jordan Harris — Justin Barron

Sam Montembeault