Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins: Lineups and Game Discussion

By now, you probably know the deal with the Hurricanes’ lineup for tonight. Teuvo Teravainen is a fingers-crossed part of the active lineup, as he’s been the past few games, but Rod Brind’Amour says he is hopeful that Turbo will be able to play. That’s more optimistic than we’ve heard before, so taking it at face value probably indicates that Teravainen will be in the lineup.

The real intrigue is on the other bench, so let’s get through the Hurricanes’ lineup quickly here to get to the real fun stuff:

Teuvo Teravainen - Sebastian Aho - Martin Necas
Andrei Svechnikov - Vincent Trocheck - Seth Jarvis
Nino Niederreiter - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast
Steven Lorentz - Derek Stepan - Jordan Martinook

Jaccob Slavin - Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Ian Cole - Ethan Bear

Frederik Andersen
Antti Raanta

Injuries and Scratches: Josh Leivo (healthy), Brendan Smith (healthy), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Covid protocol)

Now for the good part.

Tonight will be the first time the Hurricanes have faced a Bruins lineup not containing at least one of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or Tuukka Rask since - and I swear I am not making this up - January 10, 2009.

Read that last sentence again. It’s been more than thirteen years.

Bergeron is out after suffering an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s loss to the Penguins. Rask attempted a comeback, but cut that short when he announced his retirement from the NHL yesterday. And Marchand is serving the first game of a six-game suspension for losing his marbles at Tristan Jarry on Tuesday night, which led to this “graphic design is my passion” image from some social media producer at TSN the other night:

Thank u, based graphic designer.

Anyway, we’re getting a preview of life after Bergeron and Rask tonight. Presumably, Marchand will continue to play for a few more years, and Bergeron still has another year left on his contract so he likely has at least another year in him, but this is the future of the Bruins we’ll see on the ice tonight. And it looks...not terrible? Maybe? If you squint hard enough? They do get Trent Frederic back after he missed twelve games with an upper-body injury, so it’s not like there’s an absence of warm bodies, at the very least.

But then on second thought, when old friend Erik Haula is the first line center...I mean, having David Pastrnak on your wing is all well and good, but still, Erik Haula has no business being anywhere near the top line on a contending team.

Here’s how the new-look Bruins will take the ice tonight:

Taylor Hall - Erik Haula - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - Charlie Coyle - Craig Smith
Trent Frederic - Jack Studnicka - Nick Foligno
Anton Blidh - Tomas Nosek - Curtis Lazar

Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Mike Reilly - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton

Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman

Injuries and Scratches: Tyler Lewington (healthy), Brad Marchand (suspension), Patrice Bergeron (upper body), Jakub Zboril (IR lower body)

Tonight’s Officials
Referees: Tom Chmielewski #18, Gord Dwyer #19
Linesmen: Bevan Mills #53, Andrew Smith #51