Game 27 Boston Bruins @ Vegas Golden Knights Lines, Preview

Here’s your Boston Hockey Now Boston Bruins Game Day Preview:

Boston Bruins (21-4-1, 43 pts) vs Vegas Golden Knights (20-8-1, 41 pts)

TIME: 8 P.M. ET,

TV: NESN,

Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

At this point in the season, it’s pretty clear that the Boston Bruins do not like losing. They didn’t like the Golden Knights ending their NHL-record home win streak earlier this week, and they certainly don’t like the prospect of losing two games in a row.

So coming off a 100 percent disappointing last-minute loss to the lowly Arizona Coyotes on Friday night, the Boston Bruins had a crisp practice in Vegas on Saturday where it was clear to their coach that they want to finish their business trip on a positive note.

“I do because of the way they practiced [on Saturday],” said Jim Montgomery when asked if he expected a notable effort on Sunday night vs. the Golden Knights. “They practiced like they wanted to be good. It’s a little bit of a thing for us is we don’t want to lose two in a row. Last night, we lost a game so [Sunday] night’s important to us.”

After Jeremy Swayman had a rough night in Arizona with four goals allowed on 16 shots and a last-minute play where icing was waved off for the game-winning goal, the Boston Bruins are expected to go back to Linus Ullmark. He’s been a stopper for the Black and Gold all year and that hasn’t changed in December where he’s been 2-0-0 with a 0.50 goals against average and a .979 save percentage this month.

Boston Bruins Notes

-David Krejci is out for Sunday night’s game against the Golden Knights with what Jim Montgomery termed a “maintenance day” on Saturday. Krejci was hit on the inside of the right leg with a shot in Friday night’s loss to the Arizona Coyotes and missed a few shifts, and then was absent from the practice ice on Saturday. So the odds are very decent – we are in Vegas, after all – that Krejci is absent due  to the blocked shot, and Pavel Zacha would slide over to be the No. 2 center with AJ Greer as his left winger.

–Trent Frederic is second on the Boston Bruins with three goals in the month of December and has been a point-per-game player with three goals and four points in four games this month skating for an excellent B’s third line with Taylor Hall and Charlie Coyle.

–David Pastrnak has scored in four straight games and eight of his last 9 games with 10 goals over that span of time. “He’s just uber talented,” said Jim Montgomery, simply of the Boston Bruins game-breaker at right wing.

Vegas Golden Knights Notes

-Jack Eichel is back in the lineup for the Golden Knights after missing last Monday night’s game in Boston for undisclosed reasons.

-One person we haven’t mentioned at all in preview is Bruce Cassidy after he came out the winning coach in his return to Boston earlier this week where he had an emotional welcome back from the organization, and from the Boston Bruins fan case.

Boston Bruins fans showing love to former head coach Bruce Cassidy in his return with Vegas 💛

(via @NHLBruins) pic.twitter.com/GOCDoQfU3F

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 6, 2022

-Rookie Logan Thompson is expected to get the start for the Golden Knights after coming up big in their shootout win over Boston earlier this week. Thompson is 13-6-0 with a 2.68 goals against average and a .918 save percentage this season and made 40 saves in the shootout win on Monday night.

Boston Bruins Lineup:

Forwards

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jake DeBrusk

AJ Greer-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak

Taylor Hall-Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic

Nick Foligno-Tomas Nosek-Craig Smith

Defense:

Hampus Lindholm-Charlie McAvoy

Matt Grzelcyk-Brandon Carlo

Derek Forbort-Connor Clifton

Goalies:

Linus Ullmark

Jeremy Swayman

Vegas Golden Knights Lineup:

Forwards

Chandler Stephenson-Jack Eichel-Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith

Paul Cotter-Jake Leschysyn-Phil Kessel

William Carrier-Nicolas Roy-Keegan Kolesar

Defense

Zach Whitecloud-Alec Martinez

Nicolas Hague-Brayden McNabb

Ben Hutton-Daniil Miromanov

Goalies

Logan Thompson