Sunday marks another installment of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry, but it won’t be an ordinary tilt between the longtime foes.
Boston and Montreal are set to meet 100 years to the day of the first game in Bruins history. The Black and Gold came out on top in that contest in 1924, and they will be looking for a similar result when they host the Habs at TD Garden.
Joe Sacco’s side will look to bounce back from a deflating Friday night loss at home to the lowly Pittsburgh Penguins. A favorable opportunity awaits the Bruins against the Canadiens, who currently occupy last place in the Atlantic Division and lost three of their last four games.
Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for Sunday afternoon’s showdown, which will have full coverage on NESN beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
BRUINS (11-11-3)
Morgan Geekie–Pavel Zacha–David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand–Elias Lindholm–Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic–Charlie Coyle–Tyler Johnson
John Beecher–Mark Kastelic–Cole Koepke
Mason Lohrei–Charlie McAvoy
Parker Wotherspoon–Brandon Carlo
Nikita Zadorov–Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman
CANADIENS (8-12-3)
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Alex Newhook
Juraj Slafkovsky — Christian Dvorak — Brenden Gallagher
Joshua Roy — Kirby Dach — Josh Anderson
Emil Heineman — Jake Evans — Joel Armia
Lane Hutson — Mike Matheson
Kaiden Guhle — Justin Barron
Arber Xhekaj — David Savard
Cayden Primeau
