BOSTON — The Bruins will begin life without Brad Marchand on Tuesday night against Winnipeg, when the agitating winger will serve the first game of his five-game suspension for a hit on Vancouver’s Sami Salo on Saturday.
Claude Julien will start with Benoit Pouliot playing in Marchand’s spot alongside Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin, just as he did when Marchand missed last Thursday’s game against Calgary with the flu. Pouliot clicked immediately with that line, collecting three assists as the trio combined for three goals and nine points.
“He played well with those two guys,” Julien said “He’s a player that I think everybody’s seen from Day 1 to now he’s improved a lot and fit in better. He’s done exactly what we were anticipating at the beginning when we said let’s be patient with this guy and give him a chance. Some guys fit in quicker than the others, but he’s done great. … He has a good stick, he turns a lot of pucks over and he makes plays and he’s contributing too, now. So to me, I like the way he’s played and it’s an opportunity for him to jump in with that line and help out.”
With Pouliot moving up, Zach Hamill will return to the lineup on the third line with Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley. Hamill skated at center during the morning skate, but all three players are capable of playing both on the wing and in the middle, so Julien won’t hesitate to move them around.
“That line with Benoit on the line with Bergy [Bergeron] and Seggy [Seguin], you’ll see [Wednesday], at least start with that,” Julien said. “The other line can go anyway you want. You know Kelly can play the left, Zach Hamill can play center. Peverley can play center, and Zach can play right. Kelly can play center and the other two, so it can go either way. The one thing I’ll do is see how the game goes with certain guys in certain positions, and if it doesn’t go well I’ll just move guys around so it goes as well as the other lines.”
Tuukka Rask was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate and will likely get the start after Tim Thomas played Saturday. The Jets are expected to start Ondrej Pavelec in goal.
Winnipeg will be without defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, who has 4-5-9 totals in six games against the Bruins in the last two seasons but is sidelined with a knee injury. The Jets will also likely be without center Alexander Burmistrov, who has a lower-body injury.
“He’s going to be a tough task,” Winnipeg coach Claude Noel said. “We want to be sure that we’ve got Burmistrov for the longer term than the short term. If we can get through the game without him, then it looks like we’re going to be OK after that.”
Burmistrov also sat out Saturday’s 2-1 win in Buffalo. Tim Stapleton was also out of the lineup for that game, but could return against the Bruins. Otherwise, Noel does not expect to make many changes.
“There may be some changes in the lines, but it will be pretty close to the same lineup,” Noel said. “We’ll see about that. Some of those things will be decided during the warm-up.”
Greg Kimmerly and Stephen Walkom will be the referees, with Steve Barton and Brian Murphy working the lines.
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Benoit Pouliot-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Chris Kelly-Zach Hamill-Rich Peverley
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas
Scratches: Brad Marchand (suspended), Steven Kampfer
Projected Jets lines
Forwards
Evander Kane-Bryan Little-Blake Wheeler
Andrew Ladd-Nik Antropov-Eric Fehr
Tanner Glass-Jim Slater-Chris Thorburn
Kyle Wellwood-Tim Stapleton-Antti Miettinen
Defense
Tobias Enstrom-Zach Bogosian
Johnny Oduya-Ron Hainsey
Mark Stuart-Randy Jones
Goalies
Ondrej Pavelec
Chris Mason
Scratches: Alexander Burmistrov (lower body), Patrice Cormier, Mark Flood
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