Bruins Make Notable Line Changes Ahead of Utah Showdown

The Utah Mammoth are about to get a different look from the Boston Bruins.

After dropping two straight games and scoring just once in each loss, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm is shaking up his forward lines ahead of Thursday night’s matchup. Boston is searching for offense, and the changes could create some interesting matchups against a Utah team that has scored 17 goals through its first four games.

The biggest change comes on the top two lines. Pavel Zacha will center Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak on the first line, while JJ Peterka moves to a new-look second line alongside Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.

That makes Peterka the obvious first name to watch.

Peterka was traded by the Mammoth to Boston during the offseason in exchange for two first-round picks. Thursday will be his first opportunity to face the team that decided to move on from him, and you can bet he’ll want to make his former club pay for it.

Peterka has two goals through his first four games with Boston. Adding a third — or even a fourth — against Utah would be one heck of a way to make his old team regret letting him go.

Then there’s Pastrnak.

The Bruins superstar is one of the most dangerous goal scorers in hockey, but Utah has managed to keep him relatively quiet. Pastrnak has just two goals and three assists in 10 career games against the Mammoth. Never count him out when the puck is on his stick, but Utah has had unusual success limiting his impact.

On the other side, Nick Schmaltz enters Thursday as Utah’s hottest scorer. He has five goals and two assists through four games this season, giving him a team-leading seven points. Schmaltz has four goals and five assists in 16 career games against Boston, although he hasn't scored against the Bruins in several years.

Finally, Dylan Guenther is looking to continue what has become a steady climb toward stardom. After scoring 27 goals two seasons ago and 40 last year, Guenther already has three goals through four games this season. He also has two goals and two assists in six career games against Boston.

With Boston changing things up, these four players could have a major say in how Thursday night unfolds.

All of the action kicks off at 5 p.m. local time from the TD Garden.