Projected Bruins Lines, Pairings For Matchup With Rival Panthers

The Bruins and the Panthers on Monday will meet for the second time in less than a week.

The Atlantic Division rivals helped kick off the NHL’s 2024-25 regular-season slate last Tuesday. Florida certainly looked like the defending Stanley Cup champion in its 6-4 win over Boston, which started backup goaltender Joonas Korpisalo for the opener at Amerant Bank Arena.

Jeremy Swayman reclaimed his spot in between the pipes following the primetime tilt, and the Bruins responded with back-to-back wins. The Panthers, meanwhile, dropped two straight games by multiple goals after trouncing the Black and Gold. Florida will be without two of its stars for the matinee showdown. Forwards Aleksander Barkov is expected to miss two to three weeks with a lower-body injury and Matthew Tkachuk has been ruled out with an illness.

The latest bout between the longtime foes will take place in a matinee setting, with puck drop from TD Garden set for 1 p.m. ET. NESN will carry complete coverage of the matchup beginning at noon.

Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for Monday’s Panthers-Bruins game:

BRUINS (2-1-0)
Pavel Zacha — Elias Lindholm — David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Morgan Geekie
Trent Frederic — Matthew Poitras — Justin Brazeau
John Beecher — Mark Kastelic — Cole Koepke

Nikita Zadorov — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei — Andrew Peeke

Jeremy Swayman

PANTHERS (1-2-0)
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
A.J. Greer — Jesper Boqvist — Mackie Samoskevich
Jonah Gadjovich — Patrick Giles — Uvis Balinskis

Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Adam Boqvist

Sergei Bobvrosky