The Boston Bruins have three of six regular defensemen sidelined in their first tilt of the year with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Line projections and what to watch from both sides below:
BOSTON – The Boston Bruins (8-0-1) are set to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-3-1) on Thursday, marking Boston’s third game in a row against an Atlantic Division rival after it started the season against seven Western Conference opponents.
The Bruins’ blue-liners are banged up, and the performance of three AHL Providence call-ups will be the biggest focus of attention. Matt Grzelcyk (upper body) was placed on long-term injured reserve on Wednesday, and Derek Forbort (undisclosed) was ruled out on Thursday morning. His status is “day to day.”
Charlie McAvoy will sit out while serving the first of his four-game suspension for his illegal check to the head on Florida Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Ian Mitchell, Parker Wotherspoon and Mason Lohrei were recalled from Providence, and all three will suit up on Thursday.
Here are the projected lines:
Pavel Zacha - Matt Poitras - David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand - Charlie Coyle - Jake DeBrusk
James van Riemsdyk - Morgan Geekie - Trent Frederic
Johnny Beecher - Patrick Brown - Oskar Steen
Hampus Lindholm - Kevin Shattenkirk
Mason Lohrei - Brandon Carlo
Parker Wotherspoon - Ian Mitchell
Jeremy Swayman
Linus Ullmark
With Forbort and McAvoy absent from Boston’s league-best penalty kill, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said both Lohrei and Wotherspoon will see time on those units.
Lohrei will make his NHL debut. After a strong preseason performance that kept him on the roster until the final day of training camp, Lohrei has an opportunity to show he belongs at the NHL level.
“Since I got the call up, there’s been nerves, but that’s all part of it,” Lohrei said on Wednesday. “That’s what makes it so special and so fun.”
The 2020 second-round pick has four assists in seven games with AHL Providence this season, and he will start on a pair with Brandon Carlo.
Wotherspoon will be making his season debut. A 2015 fourth-round pick to the New York Islanders, Wotherspoon appeared in 12 NHL games last season, picking up one assist. He’s spent the majority of his career in the AHL, recording 109 points in 299 games, mostly with AHL Bridgeport. This season is his first in the Bruins’ organization.
“[Wotherspoon has] really good hands and good vision, much better than what I anticipated,” Montgomery told reporters on Thursday. “And he has a lot of ‘sandpaper’ to him. What the question mark would be is how quickly he plays and assimilates [into] how we want to play, even though Providence plays the same way, those first-touch pucks are important.”
Mitchell, meanwhile, started the season as Boston’s No. 7 defenseman and has appeared in two games, recording one assist.
On the other side, Toronto has lost each of its past two games (0-1-1), most recently a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. Tyler Bertuzzi, who scored four goals and 16 points in 21 games with the Bruins last season after coming in at the trade deadline, returns to town. He has three points in nine games with Toronto.
Willam Nylander (13 points), John Tavares (12) and Auston Matthews (10) are all scoring above one point per game, and Mitch Marner is right behind with eight through nine games played. With the talent and production up front for Toronto, it will be a real test for Boston’s weakened back end.
“Offensively, they’re a team that can make you pay,” Bruins defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “Their top two lines have a ton of firepower, and we also know that they’re coming off a loss that they’re probably not happy about, so we’re gonna get a hungry team. This is a big rivalry, big division game.”
Even with Boston missing three defensemen, Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe is not taking them lightly.
“They’ve got a great foundation,” Keefe said on Thursday morning. “Their defense has stayed intact, and I know they got some changes here for tonight’s game, but through the season, their defense has been intact that they had last season. Their goaltending has been the best in the league, and they’ve got elite forwards that have really done a good job for them. And then they’ve got a real good team structure and culture.”
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