Can the Bruins force a Game 7? Simulating Florida vs. Boston Game 6 in NHL 24
There has been only one game where the winner was predicted wrong by NHL 24 in the Boston versus Florida series. That was Game 3 when the simulation had the Bruins winning but the real-life Panthers squashed them.
Boston staved off elimination in Game 5 to keep their season going. They will have to do it again in Game 6 and some good fortune appears to be coming their way with the potential return of their captain Brad Marchand.
Marchand is listed as a game-time decision for tonight. However, seeing as he was a participant on Boston's second line at practice yesterday, and spoke to the media, we assume No. 63 will make his return after suffering an upper-body injury in Game 4.
Here are the lines we used for the simulation:
Boston's Projected Lines:
DeBrusk - Geekie - Pastrnak
Marchand - Coyle - Frederic
Heinen - Zacha - Brazeau
Van Riemsdyk - Beecher - Maroon
Lindholm - McAvoy
Lohrei - Carlo
Wotherspoon - Peeke
Swayman
Ullmark
For Florida, Head Coach Paul Maurice did hint at some possible lineup changes for Game 6 but did not disclose what those will be.
UPDATE: Paul Maurice has announced that Nick Cousins and Ryan Lomberg will come in for Steven Lorentz and Kyle Okposo.
Florida's Simulation Lines:
Tarasenko - Barkov - Reinhart
Verhaeghe - Bennett - Tkachuk
Luostarinen - Lundell - Rodrigues
Lorentz - Stenlund - Okposo
Forsling - Ekblad
Mikkola - Montour
Ekman-Larsson - Kulikov
Bobrovsky
Stolarz
The Bruins broke the scoreless tie early in the second period when Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, and Mason Lohrei scored within 90 seconds of each other.
Florida's Scandinavian's Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Anton Lundell scored 27 seconds apart late in the third to make it a 4-2 game, but Boston added a goal in the final minute from Geekie to preserve the win and defeat the Panthers 5-2.
Sergei Bobrovsky had a rough game in the crease allowing five goals on 24 shots, and refused to get up on Boston's fifth goal.
Florida's top line of Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, and Vladimir Tarasenko all were a minus-3. Boston's top line of Jake DeBrusk, Morgan Geekie, and David Pastrnak drastically outperformed them with each being a plus-3 in the game.
The last time the Bruins were home they were getting booed off the ice and fans chanting "Shoot the puck." Tonight they will attempt to create a more joyful crowd with the puck dropping just after 7pm EST.
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