Game 11: Boston Bruins Vs. Edmonton Oilers Lines, Preview

The Boston Bruins (6-4-0, 12 pts) welcome the Connor McDavid and the red-hot Edmonton Oilers (9-2-0, 18 pts) to TD Garden on Thursday night for their one and only visit to Boston this season. Puck drop is at 7:05 PM ET (ESPN+, NESN).

The Bruins come into this non-conference game having narrowly escaped a one-goal win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night and having dropped a disappointing effort to the Toronto Maple Leafs last weekend. The Oil are coming off a loss, but have won eight of their last 10 games while McDavid has been racking up the goals and points.

Boston Bruins Notes

-Boston Bruins veteran Linus Ullmark gets the start in net and is coming off four goals allowed on 35 shots in a Saturday loss to the Maple Leafs. Ullmark leads the Bruins with a .918 save percentage this season and has essentially settled into a 50/50 goalie rotation with Jeremy Swayman.

– The Bruins will get a pair of regulars back on Thursday night as Nick Foligno returns after missing eight games with an upper body injury, and fourth liner Anton Blidh will replace the injured Trent Frederic, who took a massive hit in Tuesday’s win over the Senators and is out with an upper body injury. The Bruins are hoping that Foligno’s return will bring some liveliness to the bench and perhaps a little more grittiness on the ice.

-Jack Studnicka has been sent back down to the AHL to get some games under his belt after an underwhelming performance at right wing in Tuesday’s win over the Senators. Expect Studnicka to remain with Providence for a little bit to get some games in and max out his ice time after sitting for most of the last two weeks at the NHL level.

-Boston Bruins winger Trent Frederic (upper body) is out of the lineup after taking a massive hit from Ottawa defenseman Josh Brown in the second period of Tuesday night’s win over the Senators. Brown is one of a large group of players now missing from the Ottawa lineup after testing positive for COVID-19.

-The Boston Bruins are a sterling 5-0-0 at TD Garden this season.

Oilers Notes

– It will be Colby Cave Night at TD Garden on Thursday night as the two NHL teams that Cave played for will drop the puck against each other. Cave died tragically almost two years ago after suffering a brain bleed last April and both teams plan to honor him on Thursday night.

“Caver was one of those people that you meet in hockey that’s special,” said Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. “I think I speak for everyone that played with him, you wanted to be like Caver with the way he treated people.”

Colby’s wife Emily will be on hand at Thursday’s game for the ceremonial puck-drop and proceeds from the Bruins 50/50 raffle will be going to the Colby Cave Memorial Fund.

-The name of the game for the Bruins will obviously be stopping Connor McDavid, who has an insane nine goals and 23 points in 11 games for the Oilers this season while making plays like this.

Holy crap…that is video game stuff pic.twitter.com/sYVeSYNItF

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) November 6, 2021

Good luck with that, right coach Bruce Cassidy?

“You’ve got to try to force the puck out of his hands, which is difficult,” said Cassidy. “He’s got some players that can finish as well. I think there’s different challenges. In the past we tried to give him outside speed because he’s gonna get it anyway, make sure we’re taking away his outlets in the interior.

“If he beat you wide and puts it on net from there, then it’s up to your goaltender a little bit. You’re ceding ice when you do that but that’s the type of player he is and the special attention he demands. That’s probably the biggest challenge is having the discipline to do that, almost let him have it on the outside and at some point, when he gets inside, make sure you have numbers and that’s when you’ve got to be good against him.”

-Kyle Turris will draw into the lineup for the Oilers. Turris has one goal and a minus-2 rating in nine quiet games this season for the Oilers.

-Mikko Koskinen will get the starting nod between the pipes for the Edmonton Oilers. The Finnish netminder is 7-1-0 with a 2.54 GAA and a .920 save percentage while getting the bulk of the starts for the Oil.

Boston Bruins Lines

Forwards:

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak

Taylor Hall – Charlie Coyle – Craig Smith

Jake DeBrusk – Erik Haula – Nick Foligno

Anton Blidh – Tomáš Nosek – Curtiz Lazar

Defense:

Derek Forbort – Charlie McAvoy

Matt Grzelcyk – Brandon Carlo

Mike Reilly – John Moore

Goalies:

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

Edmonton Oilers Lines

Forwards:

Hyman – McDavid – Puljujarvi
RNH – Draisaitl – Yamamoto
Foegele – Ryan – Turris
Perlini – McLeod – Sceviour

Defense:

Nurse – Bouchard
Keith – Ceci
Koekkoek – Barrie

Goalies:

Koskinen
Skinner