DENVER –– The road trip continues for the Boston Bruins as they take on the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night at Ball Arena.
Head coach Marco Sturm is mixing up his forward lines ahead of the 9 p.m. ET puck drop, inserting Johnny Beecher, who will make his season debut. The forward is on the fourth line with Sean Kuraly and Mark Kastelic. Beecher had 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 78 games with the Bruins last season.
“Obviously, you never want to be out of the lineup. Super excited to get my chance here,” Beecher said. “Just go out there, keep it simple to start and kind of get more and more comfortable as the game goes on.”
Other changes include Pavel Zacha moving up to the first line with Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak, and Casey Mittelstadt centering the second line between Morgan Geekie and Mikey Eyssimont. Viktor Arvidsson is now on the third line with Tanner Jeannot and Fraser Minten.
“Against a team like that, Colorado, we need the whole package. We spread it out a little bit more,” Sturm said. “With Beecher in the lineup, he’s going to give us another killer, I would say, another guy on the faceoff.”
Sturm said he wants to use Beecher on the penalty kill and utilize his speed against the high-flying Avalanche. With Beecher playing, Marat Khusnutdinov and Jeffrey Viel draw out.
“It is going to be a skating game for us today. It’s gonna be another good test,” Sturm said. “It’s just the way [the Avalanche] play – especially at home here, with a lot of speed. They just have a lot of weapons. They’re just dangerous every time they step on the ice.”
Mittelstadt is competing against his former team for the first time since joining the Bruins in March at the trade deadline. The forward spent just over a year with Colorado and has been settling into his new role in Boston.
“I think any time you play a former team, they traded you and moved on from you. It’s good motivation, for sure. The most important thing is going to be to win,” Mittelstadt said.
