Game 76: Boston Bruins @ Pittsburgh Penguins Lines, Preview

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

Boston Bruins (58-12-5, 121 pts) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (36-28-8, 80 pts)

TIME: 3 p.m. ET

TV: ABC

Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Boston Bruins Notes

–Jakub Lauko (upper body) returned to the Boston Bruins lineup for Thursday night’s win over the Blue Jackets and was one of three combatants in a violent second period along with Trent Frederic and Brandon Carlo. The Frederic bout came after Blue Jackets center Lane Pederson cross-checked Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron during a nasty sequence around the Columbus net.

-Patrice Bergeron will get Saturday afternoon off while resting some nagging injuries and Pavel Zacha will take his place in the middle between Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk.

-David Pastrnak scored the OT game-winner on Thursday night and now has 53 goals on the season with seven games remaining, and perhaps with it an outside chance at reaching 60 goals for the Black and Gold. He would join Phil Esposito as only the second player in B’s history to top 60 goals if he can reach that mark this season and needs only three goals to become the second most prolific goal-scorer in Bruins franchise history behind Espo.

-It’s expected that Jeremy Swayman is going to get the start in net for the Boston Bruins after Linus Ullmark started back-to-back games against the Predators and Blue Jackets at home this week. Ullmark is expected to get the start for Game 1 of the playoffs, with a matchup against the Penguins a distinct possibility, so it makes sense to not put him in the pipes against a Pittsburgh team he could be seeing just a few weeks from now.

Pittsburgh Penguins Notes

-It should be an interesting Saturday afternoon matchup between the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins given that they are lining up to be first round playoff opponents. The B’s are approaching Saturday afternoon’s game like it was a playoff match, and no doubt the Penguins will as well while protecting their wild card spot in the standings.

-Danton Heinen has three goals and four points in five games against his former Boston Bruins team since being traded away from the Black and Gold, and it’s lining up to be another game where the old friend could sting his former team.

-Sidney Crosby has 66 points in 54 career games against the Boston Bruins, the highest active point total for any NHL player against the Black and Gold.

Boston Bruins Lineup:

Forwards

Brad Marchand-Pavel Zacha-Jake DeBrusk

Tyler Bertuzzi-David Krejci-David Pastrnak

AJ Greer-Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic

Jakub Lauko-Tomas Nosek-Garnet Hathaway

Defense:

Matt Grzelcyk-Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo

Dmitry Orlov-Connor Clifton

Goalies:

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Forwards

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust

Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Michael Granlund

Danton Heinen-Ryan Poehling-Rickard Rakell

Drew O’Connor-Jeff Carter-Josh Archibald

Defense

Pierre Olivier Joseph-Kris Letang

Brian Dumoulin-Jeff Petry

Mark Friedman-Chad Ruhwedel

Goalies

Tristan Jarry

Casey DeSmith