Bruins-Panthers Game 6: Projected Lines, Defensive Pairings

The Bruins on Friday will hope to repeat what they did in Game 5 and keep their season alive with a win over the Panthers in Game 6 at TD Garden.

Boston on Tuesday beat Florida at Amerant Bank Arena to continue the best-of-seven series. Charlie McAvoy stepped up for the Black and Gold and gave Brad Marchand a chance to play after missing two straight games.

The Bruins captain is expected to suit up, though head coach Jim Montgomery was cautious leading up to Game 6 and called the 36-year-old a game-time decision. Marchand is expected to line up with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. That will move Danton Heinen with Pavel Zacha and Justin Brazeau, and it will move James van Riemsdyk with John Beecher and Pat Maroon. While Montgomery didn’t name a starting goalie, it’s expected to be Jeremy Swayman again between the pipes.

Paul Maurice on Thursday teased possible lineup changes, and he’ll do exactly that by inserting Ryan Lomberg and Nick Cousins into the lineup for Steven Lorentz and Kyle Okposo.

Puck drop for Bruins-Panthers Game 6 is scheduled at 7 p.m. ET on TNT. You can catch pregame coverage on NESN and then hop on over to NESN+ for postgame coverage.

Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for Boston and Florida.

BOSTON BRUINS (2-3)
Jake DeBrusk — Morgan Geekie — David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Trent Frederic
Danton Heinen — Pavel Zacha — Justin Brazeau
James van Riemsdyk — John Beecher — Pat Maroon

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

Jeremy Swayman

FLORIDA PANTHERS (3-2)
Vladimir Tarasenko — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Evan Rodrigues
Ryan Lomberg — Kevin Stenlund — Nick Cousins

Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky