Bruins-Lightning Projected Lines, Pairings: Jeremy Swayman Gets Start

The Boston Bruins will return to TD Garden on Saturday, looking to continue their recent hot streak against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Jeremy Swayman will be given a chance to redeem himself after being pulled Thursday.

“We feel like he needs to get back in there,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said Saturday, per team-provided transcript. “We want to make sure that we have a good response as a group here tonight, especially the first period.”

The B’s won’t change much at all, actually. Charlie McAvoy skated on his own before the morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena, but still isn’t ready to return after being injured in the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“There’s no new timeline on it, the timeline’s the same,” Sacco said. “He’s still week-to-week. The good news is he’s skating on his own so that’s positive. The next step, if and when he joins our team, is to start skating with us as a group.”

Boston and Tampa are set to drop the puck at 7 p.m. ET, following an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.

We have the projected lines and defensive pairings for both sides:

BOSTON BRUINS (30-29-8)
Morgan Geekie — Pavel Zacha — David Pastrnak
Marat Khusnutdinov — Elias Lindholm — Jakub Lauko
Cole Koepke — Casey Mittelstadt — Vinni Lettieri
Johnny Beecher — Patrick Brown — Mark Kastelic

Nikita Zadorov — Henri Jokiharju
Mason Lohrei — Andrew Peeke
Parker Wotherspoon — Ian Mitchell

Jeremy Swayman

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (37-23-5)
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Yanni Gourde
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Nikita Kucherov
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Nick Paul — Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening — Mitchell Chaffee

Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg — Nick Perbix

Andrei Vasilevskiy