The Boston Bruins may remain without Tuukka Rask, but Tuesday’s lineup will come with a major boost on the backend and up front, as both Brandon Carlo and Brad Marchand will be in action for the B’s head-to-head with New Jersey.
Boston’s leading scorer, Marchand’s return to action comes after a false positive (the third false positive to hit the Bruins this month) kept him out of action on both Saturday and Sunday, and with the Bruins strapped for scoring. The latter is something that Marchand can certainly help with, while the former is something that Marchand can’t sweat given the hoops everybody is jumping through to make sure that there’s indeed a 2021 NHL season.
“This has happened a few times to our team now and it’s happening to every team,” Marchand said of the false positive. “It’s part of the process. We’re thankful for the opportunity to play. This is a bump in the road, this is what comes with it to play the games. We’re not gonna complain about this with everything that’s going on and what people are going through.
“To miss a couple of days isn’t a big deal. Back at it tonight.”
Carlo, meanwhile, will make his return after missing the last 10 contests before clearing concussion protocol. Knocked out of a Mar. 5 meeting with the Capitals on a brutal cheap shot from the Capitals’ Tom Wilson, Carlo dealt with some vision issues and slight memory issues during the first part of his recovery, but feels ready to jump back into the mix.
“I’m super excited to get back and play,” Carlo, who has suffered multiple concussions at the NHL level, said Tuesday. “Any chance that I was gonna have where they would allow me to pop back in there, I would take. I’ve had enough of the viewing party from Level 9. I’m excited to get back out there and help and be an energetic voice on the bench.”
The 6-foot-5 Carlo will return to his normal spot to the right of Matt Grzelcyk on the Black and Gold’s second pairing.
The Bruins will give the start to Jaroslav Halak after Halak took a loss despite a 28-of-29 performance. Overall, the 35-year-old is 7-5-3 with a .919 save percentage this season, and has yet to defeat the Devils in 2021 despite surrendering just six goals on 86 shots (a .930 save percentage) in three meetings with the Devils.
Here’s the complete lineup and pairings for the Bruins…
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie – David Krejci – Craig Smith
Anders Bjork – Charlie Coyle – Zach Senyshyn
Anton Blidh – Trent Frederic – Karson Kuhlman
Jeremy Lauzon – Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk – Brandon Carlo
Jakub Zboril – Connor Clifton
Jaroslav Halak