Berkshire Bank Hockey Night In New England: Projected Bruins-Avalanche Lines, Pairings

The Bruins have a tough test ahead of them Saturday night when they welcome the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche to TD Garden.

Boston looks to extend its home win streak to 14 games while the Avs have won two of their last three games.

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery is sticking with the same lineup from Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, but he may make a change in net. He told reporters he had yet to decide on a starter after Jeremy Swayman was between the pipes Tuesday.

The B’s also look to put an end to their ugly penalty kill struggles by not giving up a goal on the opponent’s man-advantage for the eighth consecutive game. The kill did look better with Derek Forbort back in the lineup after missing four weeks with a broken finger, but the Bolts still found a way to score.

The Avalanche are a fast team up and down the lineup with Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon, so the Bruins certainly have their work cut out for them.

“They are still a very deep team, have a ton of talent,” Brad Marchand told reporters after Saturday’s practice. “MacKinnon is obviously one of the top two players in the world and Makar is probably the best defenseman. So, guys like that can take over a game at any moment. And again, they are very deep and play very fast, and they are a good team, so it’s going to be a good game.”

Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET and you can catch all the action beginning at 6 p.m. on NESN.

Here are the projected lines and defense pairings for both teams:

BOSTON BRUINS (19-3-0)
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Jake DeBrusk
Pavel Zacha — David Krejci — David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall — Charlie Coyle — Trent Frederic
Nick Foligno — Tomas Nosek — A.J. Greer

Hampus Lindholm — Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk — Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort — Connor Clifton

Linus Ullmark

COLORADO AVALANCHE (13-7-1)
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantaanen
Andrew Cogliano — JT Compher — Logan O’Connor
Alex Galchenyuk — Alex Newhook — Jean-Luc Foudy
Dryden Hunt — Jayson Megna — Anton Blidh

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Erik Johnson
Jacob MacDonald — Andreas Englund

Pavel Francouz