The Bruins are about as healthy as they've been all season heading into their first-round playoff series against the Capitals, which begins Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. in Washington.
Forward Ondrej Kase (upper body) and defenseman Jakub Zboril (upper body) are the only two Bruins who haven't practiced in recent days, and neither was expected to be in the Game 1 lineup anyway.
Charlie Coyle returned to practice this week from an upper-body injury that cost him the final four regular-season games and is good to go for Game 1. Kevan Miller is also good to go after taking a maintenance day Friday as he continues to manage his knee.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed to the media Saturday morning that his Game 1 lineup will be the same as the one they've been practicing with, which means it should look like this:
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall - David Krejci - Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie - Sean Kuraly - Charlie Coyle
Jake DeBrusk - Curtis Lazar - Chris Wagner
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Mike Reilly - Brandon Carlo
Jeremy Lauzon - Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
Jeremy Swayman
Capitals coach Peter Laviolette, meanwhile, was much more secretive about his lineup, telling reporters it was a "competitive advantage" to not reveal it.
The biggest questions are his starting goalie (which he still hasn't publicly named) and whether forward T.J. Oshie (lower body) will play (Laviolette called him a game-time decision).
However, it seems like a pretty safe bet that Oshie will play considering he was on the ice for morning skate Saturday. And it seems like a pretty safe bet that Vitek Vanecek will start in goal considering he was the first goalie off the ice.
Center Evgeny Kuznetsov and goalie Ilya Samsonov were not on the ice Saturday. They have been in COVID-19 protocols for a week and a half and it appears they will not be available at least for Game 1.
Here is the expected Game 1 lineup for the Capitals if Oshie does play:
Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Anthony Mantha
Daniel Sprong - T.J. Oshie - Tom Wilson
Conor Sheary - Lars Eller - Michael Raffl
Carl Hagelin - Nic Dowd - Garnet Hathaway
Dmitry Orlov - John Carlson
Brenden Dillon - Justin Schultz
Zdeno Chara - Nick Jensen
Vitek Vanecek
Craig Anderson
