Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins: Lineups and Game Discussion

The Carolina Hurricanes return to Boston for the first time since their sweep at the hands of the Bruins in last year’s Eastern Conference Final. Both teams have maintained a solid start in 2019, with the Hurricanes in a wild-card spot and the Bruins catapulting into the top spot in the entire NHL as they ride a seven-game winning streak into action on Tuesday.

The Hurricanes will look to end that Bruins streak, while also using Tuesday’s battle as a bit of a measuring stick to see how far they’ve come against the team who ultimately ousted them so rudely from the postseason. It is expected to be Petr Mrazek in net tonight, though it has not been announced officially.

Carolina will certainly need to put together a solid effort on special teams in order to combat the potent Bruins, and with Andrei Svechnikov becoming somewhat of a catalyst for the power play, the Canes have risen all the way into the top-10 on the man advantage (ninth, 21.18%).

With Martin Necas still out, expect the Canes to run a shorter bench than normal and a seven-defenseman rotation again similar to the one that picked up the win in Tampa on Saturday. James Reimer will make his second consecutive start.

John Forslund is on NBC duty tonight, so Jason Shaya will have the call with Tripp and Mike on FSC. Below is the lineup that Rod Brind’Amour is projected to send out in Beantown:

Brock McGinn - Jordan Staal - Warren Foegele
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Ryan Dzingel - Lucas Wallmark - Nino Niederreiter
Clark Bishop - Jordan Martinook

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Joel Edmundson - Brett Pesce
Jake Gardiner - Haydn Fleury
Trevor van Riemsdyk

James Reimer
Petr Mrazek

The Bruins come into action riding a terrific streak, but slightly banged up in the process as Patrice Bergeron is expected to miss the game due to a lower body issue, and Kevan Miller is not returning after suffering a setback with his own lower body problem.

In net, the Canes will not have to deal with their biggest nemesis from last season as Jaroslav Halak is slated to be in net instead of Tuukka Rask. Halak has been a solid performer for the Bruins, which has provided them the luxury to provide nearly a clean split in netminding duties in the early part of the season.

Here is the projected lineup for the B’s as they take home ice:

Brad Marchand - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - Charlie Coyle - Danton Heinen
Anders Bjork - Sean Kuraly - David Backes
Joakim Nordstrom - Par Lindholm - Chris Wagner

Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk - Connor Clifton

Jaroslav Halak
Tuukka Rask