Brian Gionta And Nick Holden To Debut Versus Penguins

7 p.m. ET
TD Garden – Boston, MA
TV: NESN, NBCSN
Radio: 98.5 FM The Sports Hub

Season Series/Schedule
Date      Game                                    GWG
11/24     PIT 3 @ BOS 4                    David Pastrnak
1/7         BOS 5 @ PIT 6 OT             Evgeni Malkin
3/1         PIT @ BOS          

Team Leaders
Bruins                                                                                   Penguins
Brad Marchand, 58                          Points                    Evgeni Malkin, 76
Patrice Bergeron, 27                       Goals                     Evgeni Malkin, 36
Brad Marchand, 34                          Assists                   Sidney Crosby, 48            

The Boston Bruins will host the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight in the third and final regular season meeting with the back-the-back Stanley Cup champions. 

The home team has one each of the first two games in this series.

The Bruins have had a balanced attack against the Penguins this season with nine goals coming from eight different players.  David Pastrnak is the only Bruin to have multiple goals versus Pittsburgh this year. 

Bruce Cassidy is going with a bit of a different lineup tonight as newcomers Nick Holden and Brian Gionta will make their team debuts.  Both Rick Nash and Tommy Wingels scored in their TD Garden debuts, so let's hope that trend continues.

Holden will replace Matt Grzelcyk on the third pairing, who is apparently nursing a minor injury.  Dalton Heinen will be a healthy scratch to make room for Gionta up front.  That move is curious to say the least.

The Penguins will be without starting goaltender Matt Murray, who is dealing with a concussion.  The Bruins will get their first crack at Casey DeSmith instead. The young goaltender has been good in a small sample size this season, but is a dropoff from Murray.

Evgeni Malkin has points in three straight games (2 G, 4 A) against the Bruins, while Sidney Crosby currently owns a five-game point streak (2 G, 8 A) versus the B's.  Not having Patrice Bergeron in the lineup against these guys will be a major hurdle to overcome.

The Penguins enter tonight with a 3-1-1 record in their last five road games.

Probable Bruins Lineup
FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Riley Nash - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Rick Nash
Brian Gionta - David Backes - Tommy Wingels
Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Noel Acciari

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Kevan Miller
Nick Holden - Brandon Carlo

GOALTENDER
Tuukka Rask (25-11-4, 2.23 GAA, .921 save %, 2 SO)

INJURY REPORT
LW-Anders Bjork (shoulder) out, C-Patrice Bergeron (foot) out

Probable Penguins Lineup
FORWARDS
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Carl Hagelin - Evgeni Malkin - Patric Hornqvist
Conor Sheary - Derick Brassard - Phil Kessel
Tom Kuhnhackl - Riley Sheahan - Carter Rowney

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Olli Maatta - Justin Schultz
Matt Hunwick - Jamie Oleksiak

GOALTENDER
Casey DeSmith (3-4-0, 2.35 GAA, .925 save %, 0 SO)

INJURY REPORT
G-Matt Murray (concussion) out