The penultimate game of the 2022 preseason will also come with a debut, as David Pastrnak will suit up for Wednesday’s head-to-head with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Boston’s leading scorer from a season ago, the Bruins haven’t held Pastrnak out of action due to an injury or anything of the sort, but rather due to crowded camp battles that have left Jim Montgomery dying to know who will be in the mix at the bottom of his roster come Oct. 12’s Opening Night in Washington.

With Pastrnak, who remains in need of a new contract to keep him in Boston beyond 2023, the Bruins know what they have, and they know that it’ll be to the right of David Krejci when things get underway.

The Bruins will see the Krejci-Pastrnak combo in effect tonight, too, but the line will also feature Pavel Zacha to the duo’s left. Zacha, who put up a career-high 36 points with the Devils last year, is currently the clubhouse leader to skate with the pair while Taylor Hall recovers from his upper-body injury.

Below that top line, the Bruins will move Jake DeBrusk back to his natural left wing position and put him with Jack Studnicka and Marc McLaughlin on Boston’s second line. With Oskar Steen waived on Tuesday, the odds of both Studnicka and McLaughlin making the team continue to trend upwards.

The Bruins also got some good news on the medical front, too, with Fabian Lysell expected to skate with Jakub Lauko and Johnny Beecher on Boston’s third line. Lysell, who was injured in last Saturday’s preseason meeting with the Flyers, has been an intriguing option for the Bruins in camp.

The arrow still points towards Lysell beginning his 2022-23 in Providence, but the Bruins loved what they saw prior to his injury, and a strong showing Wednesday may force the Bruins to give him a look in Saturday’s finale.

And on the fourth line, it will be Chris Wagner and Vinni Lettieri on Joona Koppanen’s wings.

On defense, Anton Stralman’s tryout will roll on, but with a new pairing partner for this game, as the 36-year-old will skate to the right of Jakub Zboril on Boston’s de facto top pairing.

An obvious fit with Hampus Lindholm, a pairing with the 5-foot-11 Swede opposite Jakub Zboril may very well be what his actual role with the club would be upon Charlie McAvoy’s eventual return to action.

The Bruins will also go with an NHL-looking second pairing that’s Montgomery described as ‘two trees’ with Derek Forbort to the left of Brandon Carlo. What’s interesting about this pairing, which got a slight run in 2021-22 under Bruce Cassidy, is that it will truly pull the offensive game out of Carlo. The Bruins wouldn’t hate seeing more of that translate from the practice sheet to real game action.

Montgomery will round things out on defense with Mike Reilly skating opposite Dan Renouf.

In net, second-year full-timer Jeremy Swayman will make his second start of the preseason, and the Bruins are expected to give Swayman the full 60 minutes in this one.

Swayman turned aside 24-of-26 in an overtime win over the Rangers last Tuesday.

He will be backed up by Kyle Keyser.