Game 6 Injury, Lineup Updates For Bruins And Maple Leafs

The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs gave injury and lineup updates ahead of their Game 6 tilt at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday night.

Boston Bruins winger Danton Heinen was a game-time decision for Game 5 and ultimately wound up playing, finishing the game as a minus 1 with no points and two hits in 15:46 TOI. Well, Heinen won’t even make it to the game-time decision status for Game 6. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound winger was not on the ice for the Bruins’ game-day skate on Thursday morning and was ruled out for Game 6 by head coach Jim Montgomery.

With Heinen not available, Bruins rookie forward John Beecher will draw back into the lineup after watching his team’s 2-1 overtime loss in Game 5 from the press box. Beecher is expected to skate on the left wing, with Jesper Boqvist and Pat Maroon on the right wing of the energy line.

After getting walked by Maple Leafs captain John Tavares on the play leading to the Matthew Knies overtime winner and making the turnover that led to Jake McCabe’s goal that put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 5:33 into regulation of Game 5, defenseman Matt Grzelcyk will be a healthy scratch for Game 6. In his place will be Kevin Shattenkirk, who was a healthy scratch in Game 5. Shattenkirk will skate on the right of the Bruins’ third defensive pairing with Parker Wotherspoon on the left.

The Maple Leafs will be facing elimination for a second straight game, and for a second straight time, they will need to do so without their best player, Auston Matthews. Matthews skated before his teammates had their game-day skate on Thursday morning but was ruled out for Game 6 by Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.

Here’s what the lineups should look like for both teams in Game 6:

Boston Bruins Lineup

Forwards

Brad Marchand – Charlie Coyle – Morgan Geekie

Jake DeBrusk – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak

James van Riemsdyk –  – Trent Frederic – Justin Brazeau

John Beecher – Jesper Boqvist – Pat Maroon

Defensemen

Mason Lohrei – Charlie McAvoy

Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo

Parker Wotherspoon – Kevin Shattenkirk

Goalies

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark

Toronto Maple Leafs Lineup

Forwards

Tyler Bertuzzi – Max Domi – Mitch Marner

Matthew Knies – John Tavares – William Nylander

Nick Robertson – Pontus Holmberg – Calle Jarnkrok

Connor Dewar – David Kampf – Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Morgan Reilly – Ilya Lyubushkin

Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe

Joel Edmundson – Timothy Liljegren

Goalies

Joseph Woll

Ilya Samsonov