Bruins-Golden Knights Projected Lines, Pairings: Crucial Road Trip Begins

The Boston Bruins start a pivotal stretch for their playoff lives Thursday night when they begin a five-game road trip out West.

That trip begins against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas bested Boston at TD Garden in a 4-3 final on Feb. 8 in the only other meeting this season.

The Bruins take the ice still without Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm and look to snap a three-game losing streak in this matchup.

Boston enters play Thursday four points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins have just 13 games remaining in the regular season.

Here are the projected lines for Thursday’s matchup between Boston and Vegas:

BOSTON BRUINS (30-30-9)
Morgan Geekie — Pavel Zacha — David Pastrnak
Cole Koepke — Casey Mittelstadt — Vinni Letteri
Marat Khusnutdinov — Elias Lindholm — Jakub Lauko
John Beecher — Patrick Brown — Mark Kastelic

Nikita Zadorov — Henri Jokiharju
Mason Lohrei — Andrew Peeke
Parker Wotherspoon — Ian Mitchell

Jeremy Swayman

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS (39-20-8)
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Brandon Saad — Tomas Hertl — Pavel Dorofeyev
Nicolas Roy — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith
Tanner Pearson — Brett Howden — Keegan Kolesar

Nicolas Hague — Alex Pietrangelo
Noah Hanifin — Zach Whitecloud
Brayden McNabb — Kadean Korczak

Adin Hill