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

The Bruins can extend their win streak to five games Thursday night when they welcome their storied Montreal Canadien rival to TD Garden.

Boston kicked off its homestand with a 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday and can clinch the Atlantic Division with a victory over Montreal in any fashion and a Toronto Maple Leafs loss in regulation to the Florida Panthers.

A win also would mark the 55th of the season for the B’s, which would be just the second time in franchise history the Bruins reached that milestone. The first came during the 1970-71 season when the Black and Gold amassed 57 wins.

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery will continue his defenseman carousel with Brandon Carlo being the healthy scratch for Boston. Jakub Zboril will get his second start in the last three games. Jakub Lauko also will sit, setting up A.J. Greer to return to the forward lines.

Jeremy Swayman will start between the pipes for the Bruins, opposite of Jake Allen.

Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action beginning at 6 p.m. on NESN.

Here are the projected lines and defense pairings for both teams:

BOSTON BRUINS (54-11-5)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Jake DeBrusk
Pavel Zacha–David Krejci–David Pastrnak
Tyler Bertuzzi–Charlie Coyle–Trent Frederic
A.J. Greer–Tomas Nosek–Garnet Hathaway

Matt Grzelcyk–Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm–Dmitry Orlov
Jakub Zboril–Connor Clifton

Jeremy Swayman

MONTREAL CANADIENS (28-37-6)
Rafael Harvey-Pinard–Nick Suzuki–Mike Hoffman
Jonathan Drouin– Kirby Dach–Denis Gurianov
Rem Pitlick–Jake Evans–Brendan Gallagher
Michael Pezzetta–Chris Tierney–Alex Belzile

Mike Matheson–David Savard
Johnathan Kovacevic–Justin Barron
Joel Edmundson–Jordan Harris

Jake Allen

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