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

The Boston Bruins take the ice against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night in hopes of putting together a bounce-back performance.

The Bruins are coming off an underwhelming 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Monday night. It snapped a streak in which Boston had won three of its previous four games. Montreal is coming off a win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, as the Black and Gold have extra day of rest.

Linus Ullmark is expected to return between the pipes for the Bruins. John Beecher, who was recalled Wednesday, is projected to enter the lineup in place of James van Riemsdyk, who wasn’t present at practice Wednesday. Beecher is set to play on Jesper Boqvist’s left wing with Jakub Lauko on the opposite side. Defenseman Andrew Peeke, who Boston acquired at the deadline, is expected to make his Bruins debut.

Puck drop from Bell Centre is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live on NESN after an hour of pregame coverage.

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

BOSTON BRUINS (38-14-15)
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Jake DeBrusk
Danton Heinen — Pavel Zacha — David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic– Morgan Geekie — Justin Brazeau
John Beecher — Jesper Boqvist — Jakub Lauko

Mason Lohrei — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo
Parker Wotherspoon — Andrew Peeke

Linus Ullmark

MONTREAL CANADIENS (25-30-10)
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Joshua Roy — Alex Newhook — Joel Armia
Josh Anderson — Jake Evans — Brendan Gallagher
Tanner Pearson — Colin White — Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Mike Matheson — Kaiden Guhle
Arber Xhekaj — David Savard
Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault

Presented by Berkshire Bank, the official bank of NESN’s Boston Bruins coverage.