Boston Bruins: Predicting the Opening-Night Lineup

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Training camp is rapidly coming to a close for the Boston Bruins. Their home opener is now less than a week away. They’ll begin their 2014-2015 campaign next Wednesday night at TD Garden opposite the Philadelphia Flyers.

Plenty of work still remains, and especially for bench boss Claude Julien. Boston’s roster is deep and Julien will be faced with the tough task of narrowing it down over the next few days. It appears as if multiple forward spots are up for grabs along the bottom two lines. The blue line is packed with talented, young defenders, battling for a job. Goalie seems to be the only position that’s clear at this point.

Following the departures of Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton, Julien is now forced to shake up his lineup. We know Loui Eriksson will get the nod along the top line in place of Iginla. Line two will remain unchanged as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Reilly Smith all make a return.

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Carl Soderberg, Chris Kelly and Daniel Paille are all bottom six guys, but the question is where will they skate and with whom will they do so with. Rookie David Pastrnak, Matt Fraser, Bobby Robins, Craig Cunningham, Anthony Camara and Jordan Caron are all candidates pushing for the openings. Veteran Simon Gagne, who the Bruins invited to training camp, also remains in the mix.

Gregory Campbell is still on the roster. Unfortunately he’ll miss the beginning of the season with an injury.

Zdeno Chara, Johnny Boychuk, Dennis Seidenberg, Torey Krug and Dougie Hamilton all project to be locks along Boston’s backend. Adam McQuaid, Kevan Miller, Matt Bartkowski and David Warsofsky are gunning for the sixth and final defense spot. McQuaid and Miller play a similar style. Warsofsky has come on strong in camp and has had little experience at the NHL level. The Bruins could end up carrying eight d-men. It’s likely one of the nine guys gets traded away.

Tuukka Rask is obviously the definite starting goalie. Niklas Svedberg appears to be in line to back him up. There was chatter early on in camp that Malcolm Subban had a chance of making the team. It’s most likely that he starts the season in Providence.

Here’s how I view the lineup shaking out:

Line 1: Milan Lucic–David Krejci-Loui Eriksson

Line 2: Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith

Line 3: Matt Fraser-Carl Soderberg-Simon Gagne

Line 4: Daniel Paille-Chris Kelly-Bobby Robins

D1: Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton

D2: Dennis Seidenberg-Johnny Boychuk

D3: Torey Krug-Kevan Miller/Adam McQuaid*

G: Tuukka Rask

*McQuaid or Miller will be the team’s 7th defenseman in the rotation

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