Coming off a 1-0-2 road trip that ended with a pair of overtime losses in the final seconds to the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins will look to pick up two valuable points in the Eastern Conference playoff race on Thursday night.
The Bruins will host the Winnipeg Jets, a team that won the Presidents' Trophy last year but is going to miss the postseason this year. They still have a star between the pipes with Connor Hellebuyck, who backboned Team USA to a Gold Medal last month in the Olympics.
Looking to add some energy to the lineup, head coach Marco Sturm is making some changes on Thursday night with his lineup.
Bruins inserting newly-acquired forward Lukas Reichel into the lineup against Jets
On Wednesday night, it was announced that the Bruins were calling up newly-acquired forward Lukas Reichel from the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL). Acquired at the trade deadline, Reichel has struggled in his career, but Sturm is clearly hoping to turn him around.
According to the Bruins team reporter Belle Fraser, Reichel skated on the third line at Thursday morning's skate at the TD Garden with Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie. After the skate, Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe reported that Sturm confirmed Reichel was going to be in the third line and make his Boston debut against Winnipeg.
Jeremy Swayman will start for a second straight game in goal, which is surprising with a massive game against the Detroit Red Wings looming on Saturday night on the road. As far as Reichel goes, this is certainly a decision that the Bruins are hoping to find some lightning in a bottle. Mikey Eyssimont and Alex Steeves will be scratched in favor of Reichel.
This feels like another move by Strum looking for offense and hoping to find it by placing Reichel with Geekie and Lindholm. Who knows, maybe he runs into one, but it makes the Steeves extension back in January a little more head-scratching. Desperate times call for desperate measures in a heated playoff race.