Projected lines, pairings for Bruins without Bergeron for Game 3 originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Florida Panthers stole home ice advantage in their first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins by winning Game 2 at TD Garden on Wednesday night, and now it’s up to the Original Six club to take it back.
The Bruins are at FLA Live Arena for the pivotal Game 3 of this series Friday night. Boston lost twice in this building during the regular season. In fact, it was one of only two visiting arenas where the B’s suffered multiple defeats.
Chaotic end of Bruins-Panthers Game 2 sets stage for intense Game 3
The Bruins played awful in Game 2, highlighted by their 15 giveaways — two of which directly resulted in Panthers goals.
Lineup changes might be coming for the Bruins in Game 3.
Matt Grzelcyk was a healthy scratch for the first two games in Boston, but in Friday’s morning skate he was with Charlie McAvoy on the first pairing. Grzelcyk and McAvoy have great chemistry and the Bruins had a plus-21 goal differential when this pairing was on the ice at 5-on-5 during the regular season.
Connor Clifton, who played in the first two games, was not among the top-six defensemen during the morning skate, so he could be a healthy scratch for Game 3. Dmitry Orlov skated on the right side of the third pairing next to Derek Forbort. at the morning skate.
If the line combos at morning skate translate into tonight’s game, we could see a very different Bruins lineup. One of the most interesting lines used was Friday morning Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. They played just 34 seconds together at 5-on-5 during the regular season. However, it’s possible Montgomery was just trying not to give anything away by using these lines. We might see something totally different by game time.
Montgomery also told reporters that No. 1 goalie Linus Ullmark is a game-time decision. Jeremy Swayman and Brandon Bussi were the only goalies who participated in the morning skate. Ullmark was the starting netminder for Boston in each of the first two games.
Alex Lyon will be the Panthers’ starting goalie for the third straight game. He has made some huge saves in this series but his overall numbers are nothing spectacular — a .909 save percentage and a 3.03 GAA.
Here are the projected lineups for Bruins-Panthers Game 3. The Bruins’ lines and pairings are based on what the team used during Friday’s morning skate.
BOSTON BRUINS (1-1)
Forwards
Brad Marchand–Charlie Coyle–Trent Frederic
Taylor Hall–Pavel Zacha–David Pastrnak
Tyler Bertuzzi–David Krejci–Jake DeBrusk
Jakub Lauko–Tomas Nosek–Garnet Hathaway
Defensemen
Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm–Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort–Dmitry Orlov
Goalies
Linus Ullmark (projected starter)
Jeremy Swayman
FLORIDA PANTHERS (1-1)
Forwards
Eetu Luostarinen–Aleksander Barkov–Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe–Sam Bennett–Matthew Tkachuk
Ryan Lomberg–Anton Lundell–Anthony Duclair
Nick Cousins—Eric Staal–Colin White
Defense
Gustav Forsling–Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal–Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura–Radko Gudas
Goalies
Alex Lyon (confirmed starter)
Sergei Bobrovsky