Projected Bruins lines vs. Capitals: Halak in, everything else looks the same

The Boston Bruins are projected to roll out the same line combos and defensive pairings for tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals.

With Charlie Coyle on the COVID protocols list, the team practiced the same lines yesterday from Wednesday’s game. Jack Studnicka, at least for the time being, will continue to get his chance at playing center on the third line with Coyle out.

On defense, everything also remains the same. Jarred Tinordi was paired with Urho Vaakanainen during Thursday’s practice, but Bruce Cassidy confirmed Tinordi and Connor Clifton will be the third defensive pairing this evening.

Jaroslav Halak will get the start in net.

Lines:

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak

Nick Ritchie - David Krejci - Craig Smith

Trent Frederic - Studnicka - Jake DeBrusk

Anders Bjork - Sean Kuraly - Chris Wagner

Defensive pairings:

Jakub Zboril - Charlie McAvoy

Matt Grzelcyk - Brandon Carlo

Tinordi - Clifton

Halak gets the start

The Capitals are projected to look like this:

Lines:

Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Conor Sheary

Jakub Vrana — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson

Richard Panik — Lars Eller — T.J. Oshie

Carl Hagelin — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

Defensive pairings:

Brenden Dillon — John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov — Justin Schultz

Zdeno Chara — Nick Jensen

Vitek Vanecek is confirmed to start