Will Boston avoid elimination in Game 5? They'll have to do it without their captain Brad Marchand. Simulating Game 5 in NHL 24

Our simulations for the Boston versus Florida series have been almost spot on with the only exception of a wrong prediction in Game 3. NHL 24 predicted Boston winning Game 1 and Florida winning Games 2 & 4. Does EA foreshadow the Panthers advancing to their second straight Eastern Conference Final?

It was reported Tuesday morning that Bruins captain Brad Marchand will not play in Game 5. Boston will need all hands on deck to stave off elimination and avoid having the celebratory rats thrown onto the ice at the end of the game. The lineup we used for Boston is their Game 4 lines.

Boston's Projected Lines:

DeBrusk - Geekie - Pastrnak
Heinen - Coyle - Frederic
Van Riemsdyk - Zacha - Brazeau
Lauko - Beecher - Maroon

Lohrei - McAvoy
Lindholm - Carlo
Wotherspoon - Peeke

Swayman
Ullmark

We anticipate that Florida will roll out the same lineup that has clearly worked through the last two games. 

Florida's Projected Lines:

Tarasenko - Barkov - Reinhart
Verhaeghe - Bennett - Tkachuk
Luostarinen - Lundell - Rodrigues
Lorentz - Stenlund - Okposo

Forsling - Ekblad
Mikkola - Montour
Ekman-Larsson - Kulikov

Bobrovsky
Stolarz

Florida and Boston traded goals throughout sixty minutes and the 3-3 tie needed overtime to solve things. Just like he did in Game 7 against Toronto in real life, David Pastrnak came up clutch for the B's and scored the overtime-winner to keep Boston's season alive. 

Boston's line of Morgan Geekie, Jake DeBrusk, and David Pastrnak led the way for Boston to stave off elimination. The three combined for a plus-9, three goals, and seven points.

With Brad Marchand officially out for a second consecutive game, it goes without saying that the Bruins will need David Pastrnak to perform as he did in our simulation. 

Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, and the Finnish superstar Aleksander Barkov scored for Florida. 

Each goalie had their standout periods with Jeremy Swayman standing on his head in the second for Boston and Sergei Bobrovsky answering the bell in the third for the Panthers. 

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