NHL.com put out projected lineups for Friday’s Bruins Game, and the first line on the Blackhawks side features Connor Bedard between Roman Kantserov and Teuvo Teravainen. On the Bruins side, David Pastrnak is projected with JJ Peterka and Pavel Zacha, giving the matchup an immediate shape before puck drop.
That lineup sheet matters now because both teams arrived on the same short turn after 4-1 losses on Thursday. The Blackhawks did not practice Friday after falling at the Detroit Red Wings, while the Bruins held an optional skate Friday after losing at the St. Louis Blues.
For Chicago, the projected groups also list Tyler Bertuzzi with Anton Frondell and Ryan Donato, Oliver Moore with Frank Nazar and Patrick Kane, and Cole Smith with Jordan Greenway and Ryan Greene. Andrew Mangiapane and Ethan Del Mastro were scratched. Boston’s other projected lines show Marat Khusnutdinov with Fraser Minten and Morgan Geekie, Casey Mittelstadt with Elias Lindholm and James Hagens, and Tanner Jeannot with Matthew Poitras and Mark Kastelic. Jonathan Aspirot, Sean Kuraly and Frederic Brunet were scratched.
The only catch is that these are projected combinations, not a guarantee that every line will stay intact once the game starts. That leaves the real test for Friday to the opening shifts: whether Bedard stays with Kantserov and Teravainen, and whether the rest of the listed pairings survive unchanged.
