Veteran Boston Bruins Lineup Expected For Flyers Matinee

BRIGHTON, MA – The Boston Bruins lineup is going to have a very familiar look on Saturday afternoon as much of the expected opening night group will take the ice for the matinee exhibition game against the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden.

The top two forward lines are expected to be the same as they will be when Boston drops the puck against the Washington Capitals for real on Oct. 12, and four of the six defensemen are NHL veterans expected to get plenty of action this season for the Black and Gold. In addition to that Linus Ullmark will get the Saturday afternoon starting nod and is expected to play all 60 minutes against the Flyers in Boston’s second of three exhibition home dates at TD Garden.

Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery is looking for crisp play and for his systems work in training camp to translate into game action for a group of veteran players that will probably only get a couple of preseason looks before the real thing.

“[David] Krejci and [Patrice] Bergeron’s lines will be going, so you’ve got more vets. We’re going to have four veteran ‘D’ playing, so we’re expecting a little more pace to our game,” said Montgomery, who added that veteran defenseman Connor Carrick may miss a few days with an upper body injury. “Executing transition to offense from defense a lot better and I’d like to see our power play just put a lot of pressure on the other team and put them on their heels. Have some pace and have some execution in what we’re doing.”

Montgomery hinted that the five forward PP formation used in Boston Bruins practice this week could be rolled out for action against the Broad Street Bullies on Saturday.

Here is the expected lineup for Saturday afternoon’s tilt against the Flyers based on Friday’s early practice group with more cuts to the training camp roster expected to come next week for the Black and Gold:

Zacha-Bergeron-DeBrusk

Hall-Krejci-Pastrnak

Foligno-Nosek-Wagner

Frederic-Beecher-McLaughlin

Zboril-Stralman

Forbort-Clifton

Ahcan-Wissman

Callahan

Ullmark