BOSTON — At least the Bruins will go with their No. 1 starter in goal.
Tim Thomas gets the call against the Canucks on Saturday in the first meeting between the teams since last June's Stanley Cup Final.
That announcement came about an hour before the game by Bruins coach Claude Julien and a day after Canucks counterpart Alain Vigneault made the controversial announcement that he was going with backup Cory Schneider over Roberto Luongo, who struggled so mightily in Boston during the Final.
Julien wouldn't bite when asked to comment about Vigneault's decision.
"It's their business, they choose to run the team the way they want," Julien said. "As far as I know they feel the same way that we do about our goaltending tandem. I think they have a lot of confidence in Schneider. To be honest with you I would have no issues with putting Tuukka Rask in net today with the way he's played. They've got two good goaltenders the same way we do."
Julien would be fine with playing Rask, but he's sticking with Thomas.
"Yep, Tim's in net today," Julen said.
The Bruins also hope to have sparkplug forward Brad Marchand in the lineup. He missed Thursday's win over Calgary and Friday's practice with the flu, but will skate in warm-ups and, if all goes well, make his return on Saturday.
"[He's a] game-time decision," Julien said. "He's feeling better, so we'll give him the opportunity to go in the warm-up and make sure he's 100 percent."
If Marchand can't play, Benoit Pouliot will stay with Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin, and Zach Hamill will remain in the lineup. If Marchand plays as expected, Hamill will likely be the scratch along with Steven Kampfer on defense.
Don VanMassenhoven and Dan O'Rourke will be the referees attempting to keep peace, with Brad Kovachik and Derek Nansen working the lines.
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Rich Peverley
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Zach Hamill, Steven Kampfer
Projected Canucks lines
Forwards
Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Alexandre Burrows
Chris Higgins-Ryan Kesler-Mason Raymond
Andrew Ebbett-Cody Hodgson-Jannik Hansen
Manny Malholtra-Maxim Lapierre-Dale Weise
Defense
Dan Hamhuis-Kevin Bieksa
Alexander Edler-Sami Salo
Andrew Alberts-Keith Ballard
Goalies
Cory Schneider
Roberto Luongo
Scratches: Alexander Sulzer
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