BOSTON — The Bruins have one more piece of business to take care of from their 2010-11 championship season when they raise their Stanley Cup banner on Thursday night.
But once that ceremony is over, the Bruins will turn the page and begin a new season against the Philadelphia Flyers.
There's still some questions about who will be in that opening night lineup though. Defenseman Adam McQuaid participated in the morning skate after missing the past two days of practice with flu-like symptoms, but will be a game-time decision.
If McQuaid can't play, then rookie Matt Bartkowski will step into the lineup.
"He's feeling a little better," Bruins coach Claude Julien said of McQuaid. "Obviously he skated this morning and we're going to monitor how he recovers through the afternoon. He hasn't skated in a couple days and we'll probably make a decision on his status closer to the game."
Julien also faces a tough decision up front, but wouldn't tip his hand after the skate on who would be the scratch up front.
"As far as we're concerned, we told everybody to be ready tonight," Julien said. "Obviously we'll make some decisions before the game and go from there. We're going to have an extra forward and we don't know if we'll have an extra D depending on McQuaid's situation."
The decision up front is expected to come down to rookie Jordan Caron and newcomer Benoit Pouliot. They have split time on the third line with Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin in recent practices and Thursday's morning skate.
"I'm not sure, I guess we'll know before warmups," Caron said of the possibility of playing in the opener. "It would be great. This morning you could see everybody is excited. It's going to be a good night."
For Philadelphia, enforcer Jody Shelley will be out, as he is serving a suspension for a checking-from-behind incident in the preseason. He was banned for the final five games of the preseason and the first five games of the regular season.
The Flyers will also have to scratch a defenseman. Matt Walker, despite being waived earlier in the week, was expected to play, in part because he would supply a physical presence in Shelley's absence. But Walker did not skate Thursday morning and it now appears that Andreas Lilja will take the final spot on the Philadelphia blue line. Flyers coach Peter Laviolette was cryptic when asked about Walker's status.
"I'll let [Flyers general manager] Paul [Holmgren] answer any of those questions in regard to Matt," Laviiolette said.
Reigning Vezina and Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas and Ilya Bryzgalov, who signed a nine-year, $51-million deal with the Flyers this offseason, are expected to get the start in goal for their respective clubs.
Chris Rooney and Steve Kozari will be the referees, with Pierre Champoux and Brian Murphy working the lines.
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Rich Peverley
Jordan Caron/Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Tyler Seguin
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Joe Corvo
Dennis Seidenberg-Johnny Boychuk
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Caron/Pouliot, Matt Bartkowski, Steven Kampfer (knee)
Projected Flyers lines
Forwards
James van Riemsdyk-Claude Giroux-Jaromir Jagr
Jakub Voracek-Danny Briere-Wayne Simmonds
Scott Hartnell-Sean Couturier-Matt Read
Andreas Nodl-Maxime Talbot-Zac Rinaldo
Defense
Matt carle-Chris Pronger
Kimmo Timonen-Andrej Meszaros
Braydon Coburn-Andreas Lilja
Goalies
Ilya Bryzgalov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratches: Matt Walker, Jody Shelley (suspension)
