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Finally, with the comfort of that fresh slate of an 0-0-0 record to their name on opening night, the Boston Bruins can officially put their miserable finish to last year’s campaign in the rearview mirror.
But they will have to do so without one of their leaders, as
Patrice Bergeron, Boston’s best all-around forward and undisputed leader of the offensive attack, will be out of the lineup for tonight’s road game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena with a lower-body injury.
“You’re missing one of your better players, so it’s not an easy way to start, but it’s the reality,” Bruins head coach
Claude Julien, set for his 10th year behind the Boston bench, said of Bergeron’s absence. “We talk about having depth, well let’s see that depth right now, and if everyone does their job, and if we play the way we should, I think we can get through this.”
With Bergeron out of action, the Bruins will promote their shiniest of offseason pickups,
David Backes, up to center the first line between Brad Marchand and
David Pastrnak.
“He’s a good player,” Marchand said of Backes. “He plays the hard game, plays well down low, and he makes a lot of really good plays in tight. It will be really fun to play with him.”
Backes will wear an ‘A’ in Bergeron’s absence. (He’s basically just doing everything Bergeron would.)
The Backes promotion off the wing of the David Krejci line will plug first-year pro
Danton Heinen up into the top six, next to Krejci and opposite center-turned-winger, Ryan Spooner.
“I don’t get the last change,” Julien said of the new-look Krejci line and how it could play into his decision making with line-matching tonight. “This is where our depth is good. You look at our fourth line this year, and it has some experienced players with [Dom] Moore and [Riley] Nash.. so sometimes you have to rely on players like that when you run into those kind of situations.
“This is where I have to be on top of my game coaching wise.”
The Bruins will be without more than just Bergeron, though, as both
Adam McQuaid (upper-body, day to day) and
Kevan Miller (fracture in left hand, out six weeks) will begin the year on the injured reserve and out of commission for the Black and Gold’s start to their year, which will plug first-year pros
Brandon Carlo and
Robbie O’Gara into the mix for their NHL debuts.
The 19-year-old Carlo will skate on Boston’s top-pairing opposite
Zdeno Chara, while O’Gara will get a look on the right side with
Torey Krug to his left, which leaves the B’s with a third-pairing featuring
John-Michael Liles and
Colin Miller.
In Net: Tuukka Rask vs. Sergei Bobrovsky
As expected, the Bruins will give this start to
Tuukka Rask. The 29-year-old Rask posted a career-worst .915 save percentage a year ago, and will look to get on track behind a Boston defense that is, well, pretty much the same as it was a year ago, if not even less experienced. In eight career games against the Jackets, Rask has five wins and a .936 save percentage.
For the fifth straight opening night, Columbus counters with Sergei Bobrovsky. In an injury-riddled 2015-16 campaign, Bobrovsky suited up for just 37 games, and finished with 15 wins and a .908 save percentage. The talented Russian has beaten every team in the NHL in his career with the exception of one… the Bruins. In five head-to-heads with Boston, Bobrovsky is 0-2-2 with a .929 save percentage.
Stats of Note
- Marchand has just one goal and three points in 10 career games against Columbus.
- Backes, meanwhile, has 16 goals and 35 points in 45 career games against the Jackets.
- Columbus forward Boone Jenner scored a career-best 30 goals and 49 points last year.
- Scott Hartnell had 10 goals and 26 points in 38 home games last season.
Other news and notes
Third-line center
Austin Czarnik (concussion) was cleared for action and will skate on Boston’s third line between Matt Beleskey and Jimmy Hayes. Czarnik, a Michigan native and Miami of Ohio alum, will have his share of family and friends making the trip down and in the crowd.
Not sure if the same can be said for O’Gara, who will also be making his NHL debut tonight. When asked about his family making the trip for NHL debut earlier this week, O’Gara joked that he wasn’t sure if his dad “could take any more days off work.”
Joe Morrow is the expected healthy scratch for the Bruins.
Colin Miller has switched from No. 48 to (considered somewhat cursed) No. 6 for the Bruins, while Carlo has taken No. 25, and O'Gara will stick with his training camp, No. 44.
Up front, Czarnik has switched to No. 27, and Heinen will wear No. 43.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can also be read in the New England Hockey Journal magazine. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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