Boston Bruins Wrap Up Three-Game Road Trip Against Winnipeg

The Boston Bruins look to finish their season opening three-game road trip at 2-1 with the Winnipeg Jets standing in the way.

The first road trip of the 2016-2017 season for the Boston Bruins will come to a close tonight. Maybe we will see some magic from David Pastrnak tonight as it is National Pasta Day. It’s a good possibility that we will see some magic from Pasta given his hot start through the first two games of the regular season.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/788081657353994240

The road trip could have featured the top three picks in the 2016 NHL draft, had Pierre-Luc Dubois played in the B’s season opener in Columbus. It appeared as though Dubois was going to make Columbus’ roster, but he was recently sent back to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the QMJHL. They get to play against Finnish Phenom and sharpshooter, Patrik Laine, tonight for the first time.

One thing to note right off the bat is the return of Tuukka Rask to the Bruins crease. Tuukka sat out Saturday’s loss at Toronto with soreness, but he was the first goalie off the ice at the conclusion of today’s pregame skate. Anton Khudobin struggled out of the gate in Toronto and the B’s just couldn’t climb back. On another note, here were the lines at today’s morning skate.

Forwards

Marchand-Backes-Pastrnak

Spooner-Krejci-Heinen

Beleskey-Czarnik-Hayes

Moore-Nash-Acciari

Defense

Chara-Carlo

Krug-O’Gara

Liles-C. Miller

According to Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe, a possible change we see in the lines is Tim Schaller swapping in for Austin Czarnik. Czarnik hasn’t had the best first two games of his NHL career, but they certainly haven’t been terrible. It will be interesting to see if Schaller were to play, if Noel Acciari or one of the fourth liners move up to play third line center. Whether Schaller plays fourth line left wing and Dominic Moore moves up or Riley Nash moves up. Noel Acciari is another candidate to move up to third line center, as that center his natural position. The third line has gotten off to a slow start, hopefully tonight will be the night they get going.

Patrice Bergeron will be out of the lineup for the third straight game and wasn’t present at the morning skate. He is expected to return to practice Wednesday. A lower-body injury has nagged the Bruins three-time Selke trophy winner to start the season.

Next: David Backes Has Strong Start With Boston Bruins

Going 2-1 on a road trip looks a lot better than 1-2 or 1-0-1. Especially when it is your first road trip. The Bruins both currently sit at 1-1, one of them won’t after tonight. The game is set for 8 P.M. ET and will be broadcasted on TVA Sports, TSN3, NESN and NHL.TV.