Troiani Rink Report

The Bruins play their first home game of the 2025-26 season when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden on Thursday.

Boston is coming off a gritty 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena to begin the campaign. David Pastrnak recorded a goal and two assists and Jeremy Swayman turned aside 35 shots in his first start. Wednesday’s win was the first for new head coach Marco Sturm as the B’s skate into a new era on Causeway.

Chicago lost its season-opener to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Tuesday night. Frank Nazar and Teuvo Teravainen lit the lamp for the Blackhawks, and Spencer Knight made 34 saves in the loss.

While Sturm is not expected to meet with the media until 5:40 p.m. ET, NHL.com has the projected lines and defensive pairings for Boston and Chicago. With the Bruins in the second game of their first back-to-back this season, it’s reasonable to assume Joonas Korisalo will make his season debut against the Blackhawks.

Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on NESN.

Here are the projected lines and defensive pairings for each club:

BOSTON BRUINS (1-0-0)
Morgan Geekie — Elias Lindholm — David Pastrnak
Pavel Zacha — Casey Mittelstadt — Viktor Arvidsson
Tanner Jeannot — Fraser Minten — Michael Eyssimont
Marat Khusnutdinov — Sean Kuraly — Mark Kastelic

Mason Lohrei — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Andrew Peeke
Nikita Zadorov — Henri Jokiharju

Joonas Korpisalo
Jeremy Swayman

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (0-1-0)
Colton Dach — Connor Bedard — Andre Burakovsky
Teuvo Teravainen — Frank Nazar — Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Nick Foligno — Ryan Greene — Sam Lafferty

Alex Vlasic — Sam Rinzel
Matt Grzelcyk — Connor Murphy
Wyatt Kaiser — Artyom Levshunov

Spencer Knight

More Bruins: Boston pulls out gritty season-opening win over Capitals