Game 67: Boston Bruins @ Winnipeg Jets Lines, Preview

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

Boston Bruins (50-11-5, 105 pts) @ Winnipeg Jets (38-27-3, 79 pts)

TIME: 8 p.m. ET

TV: NESN, Sportsnet

Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Boston Bruins Notes

-The Boston Bruins are coming off back-to-back regulation losses for the first time this season and have lost three of their last four games while showing slippage in a lot of areas of their game. The “malaise” has coincided with the Bruins clinching a playoff spot, so the B’s seemed to zero in on that as perhaps part of the reason behind a drop in their overall level of play.

“It’s about being honest and talking about the consistency of what we’ve talked about all year,” said Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. “What we value in the last four games, we haven’t hit three of our objectives that we think are really important.

“[The slippage in play] coincided with the day we clinched playoffs and just players honest feedback, which I really value was, ‘you know, we’ve never been in a situation where 20 games left and you’ve clinched a playoff spot. t’s human nature to take your foot off the gas pedal. And that’s what’s happened to us… and we’re trying to find the right message all together to put our foot back on the gas.”

-Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo crashed into the end boards early in Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings but battled through and finished the game. Carlo then sat out Tuesday night’s loss to the Chicago Blackhawks for precautionary measures. Carlo will be back in the lineup on Thursday and Connor Clifton will be the healthy scratch after looking bad with a minus-3 in Tuesday’s loss to the Blackhawks.

-Jeremy Swayman will be getting the start for the Black and Gold. Swayman is 4-3-0 with a 2.46 goals against average and .911 save percentage since the NHL All-Star break.

Winnipeg Jets Notes

-The Jets are coming off a 5-3 road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes after collecting wins in Florida against the Lightning and Panthers, and sit four points ahead of the Nashville Predators for the final Western Conference wild card playoff spot.

“It’s a real benchmark game in that regard,” said defenseman Josh Morrissey of playing the Boston Bruins with important points on the line. “These points are huge for us right now. We’ll need to bring our best game.”

-All-Star defenseman Josh Morrissey missed the last couple of games for the Jets with a lower body injury but he expected to draw back in on Thursday night against the Bruins.

-Pierre Luc-Dubois will miss his fifth straight game for the Jets with an upper body injury, but he participated in the morning skate and is closing in on a return for Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck is expected to get the start in net.

Boston Bruins Lineup:

Forwards

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jake DeBrusk

Pavel Zacha-David Krejci-David Pastrnak

Tyler Bertuzzi-Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic

A.J. Greer-Tomas Nosek-Garnet Hathaway

Defense:

Matt Grzelcyk-Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm-Dmitry Orlov

Derek Forbort-Brandon Carlo

Goalies:

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

Winnipeg Jets

Forwards

Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifeke-Nino Neiderreiter

Nikolaj Ehlers-Vladislav Namestnikov-Blake Wheeler

Morgan Barron-Adam Lowry-Mason Appleton

David Gustafson-Kevin Stenlund-Saku Menalainen

Defense

Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo

Brendan Dillon-Neal Pionk

Dylan Samberg-Nate Schmidt

Goalies

Connor Hellebuyck

David Rittich