Game 7: Boston Bruins Vs. Florida Panthers Lines, Preview

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

Boston Bruins (3-3) vs. Florida Panthers (3-3)

TIME: 6:37 p.m. ET

TV: NESN, BCFL, TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS

Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Starting Goalies: 

Bruins – Jeremy Swayman

Panthers – Sergei Bobrovsky

Boston Bruins Notes

–Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery would not name a Game 7 starter in net, but all signs were pointing toward Jeremy Swayman getting the start for the first time in the first round series. Swayman played a few minutes of garbage time in Game 4 but has since watched Linus Ullmark look fatigued and a bit out-of-sorts in the last couple of B’s losses while dealing with defensive breakdowns in front of him. It makes perfect sense for the Boston Bruins to go back to something more resembling a tandem situation after successfully rotating goaltenders all season between Ullmark and Swayman.

Swayman is 3-3 with a 2.64 goals against average and a .907 save percentage during the Stanley Cup playoffs in his NHL career.

-Defenseman Connor Clifton will again be a healthy scratch after a minus-3 in a disastrous Game 6 performance and appears that he will be joined by veteran Nick Foligno. It looked like both Matt Grzelcyk and Trent Frederic were going to be back in the B’s lineup for the decisive Game 7 on Sunday night.

-After a quiet start to the first round series, David Pastrnak exploded for a pair of goals in Game 6 and could be entering one of his infamous hot streaks at a time when the Boston Bruins need somebody to step up and be a playoff hero.

Florida Panthers Notes

-Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk ruffled some Boston Bruins fans feathers when he guaranteed that Florida would be back at TD Garden for a Game 7 after they took Game 5 in overtime, but he has backed it up on the ice. Tkachuk has been a one-man wrecking crew with five goals and 10 points in six games to lead the Panthers by a wide margin in both offensive categories.

-While most of the Panthers players are pretty inexperienced in these Game 7 situations, they will have one veteran that’s seen pretty everything in his NHL career in Eric Staal, who has been a solid role player in this series.

“These are the best games. You always remember them,” said Staal. “When you were a kid, you always dreamed of Game 7. You didn’t talk about Game 1 when you were a kid on the pond. You were talking about Game 7.”

-Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg (upper-body) is out for the Panthers for the balance of the first round series.

Boston Bruins Lineup:

Forwards

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jake DeBrusk

Pavel Zacha-David Krejci-David Pastrnak

Taylor Hall-Charlie Coyle-Tyler Bertuzzi

Trent Frederic–Tomas Nosek–Garnet Hathaway

Defense:

Matt Grzelcyk-Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo

Derek Forbort-Dmitry Orlov

Goalies:

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

Florida Panthers Lineup:

Forwards

Carter Verhaeghe-Sasha Barkov-Anthony Duclair

Nick Cousins-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostiranen-Anton Lundell-Sam Reinhart

Zac Dalpe-Eric Staal-Colin White

Defense

Gus Forsling-Aaron Ekblad

Marc Staal-Brandon Montour

Josh Mahura-Radko Gudas

Goalies

Sergei Bobrovsky

Alex Lyon