Boston Bruins Return to Tyler Seguin

Eleven short days after two truly unfortunate penalties in overtime cost the Dallas Stars the game in Boston, the Boston Bruins head west for a rematch in the American Airlines Center.

Both teams are on a similar trajectory through this young season. The Stars are 8-5-1 and the Bruins are 8-4-2. The difference is that almost all of the Stars losses have happened on the road while the Bruins have spread their losses out a little more evenly.

In their last meeting, the line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Jason Spezza played most of their minutes against the Bruins line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak. This was a good match up for Boston, as most of the possession in that ice time swung toward the Bruins. The Stars top line was kept to 5 shots on goal the entire game, while Boston’s top line had 11.

Dallas Stars

Good news for Stars fans is that Alexander Radulov is back in the line up. He missed the last meeting with the Bruins and is always a difference maker when he plays.

Gavin Bayreuther, freshly back from a concussion that had him missing a lot of the early season with the Texas Stars, will be making his NHL debut. Bayreuther’s promotion leaves Ben Gleason down with the Texas Stars while Joel Hanley fills out the rest of the Stars depleted blue line.

Devin Shore is still out of the line up for at least ten days. John Klingberg and Connor Carrick are out until at least December.

Boston Bruins

The Bruins lost Zdeno Chara to a lower body injury during Wednesday’s game in Colorado. The well-past-his-prime defenseman took an awkward fall while finishing a check and did not return to the game. He’s been sent home to Boston for further evaluation by the team’s doctors.

Boston is having the same difficulty the Stars are with keeping their blue line healthy, and may be debuting an NHL rookie against the Stars, Jakub Zboril, a first round pick from 2015.

Lineups

Here is what the Stars have as of this morning:

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov

Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Brett Ritchie

Blake Comeau - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick

Gemel Smith - Jason Dickinson - Valeri Nichushkin

Esa Lindell - Julius Honka

Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak

Joel Hanley - Gavin Bayreuther

Ben Bishop

The Bruins, meanwhile, are dealing with a cavalcade of injuries of their own, particularly on defense—though it remains to be seen whether the Stars can take advantage of it. Expect their lineup to be somewhat similar to what they iced in Colorado Wednesday, before Zdeno Chara left with an injury. Connor Clifton was called up as a result and he may play tonight. Here’s what we have for Boston:

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak

Nordstrom - Krejci - DeBrusk

Heinen - Forsbacka Karlsson - Bjork

Wagner - Kuraly - Backes

Lauzon - Grzelcyk

Krug - Clifton/Miller

Zboril - Kampfer

Rask