Here are the projected lineups for the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Wednesday night.

BRUINS

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Nathan Horton

Gregory Campbell - Patrice Bergeron - Tyler Seguin

Chris Bourque - Chris Kelly - Rich Peverley

Jamie Tardif - Ryan Spooner - Lane MacDermid

Zdeno Chara - Johnny Boychuk

Dennis Seidenberg - Dougie Hamilton

Andrew Ference - Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask

Anton Khudobin

Scratched: Aaron Johnson

Injured: Brad Marchand, Shawn Thornton, Daniel Paille

CANADIENS

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Erik Cole

Rene Bourque - Tomas Plekanec - Brian Gionta

Brandon Prust - Alex Galchenyuk - Brendan Gallagher

Travis Moen - Lars Eller - Colby Armstrong

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Josh Gorges - Raphael Diaz

Francis Bouillon - P.K. Subban

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

Scratched: Ryan White, Yannick Weber, Tomas Kaberle

Injured: Petteri Nokelainen

The Columbus Blue Jackets assigned center Ryan Johansen to the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League.

Johansen, 20, has two assists in 10 games with the Blue Jackets this season. He began the 2012-13 season with Springfield, tallying 14 goals and 27 points in 34 games.

The fourth pick in 2010 NHL Draft hadn't registered a point in five games, but he was the team's leader in faceoff percentage at .508.

At 13:55 of the third period in the Sabres/Senators game, video review determined that the puck deflected off Buffalo forward Jason Pominville's right skate into the net. According to rule 49.2 "A puck that deflects into the net off an attacking player's skate who does not use a distinct kicking motion is a legitimate goal." Good Goal Buffalo.

At 10:09 of the second period in the Predators/Blues game, video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that the puck deflected off Nashville forward Gabriel Bourque's left skate into the net. According to rule 49.2 "A puck that deflects into the net off an attacking player's skate who does not use a distinct kicking motion is a legitimate goal." Good Goal Nashville.

At 6:16 of the first period in the Penguins/Islanders game, video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that Pittsburgh forward Sidney Crosby's shot did not cross the goal line. No Goal Pittsburgh.

At 4:24 of the first period in the Rangers/Devils game, the situation room called for a video review because the puck crossed the Devils goal line. The referee determined that he had blown his whistle after Rangers forward Rick Nash collided with the net causing it to come off the pegs but prior to the puck going into the net. According to rule 78.5 (x) "Apparent goals shall be disallowed by the referee when the net becomes displaced accidentally. The goal frame is considered to be displaced if either or both goal pegs are no longer in their respective holes in the ice, or the net has come completely off one or both pegs, prior to or as the puck enters the net." No Goal New York.

Avalanche forward Milan Hejduk fresh off his 1,000th NHL game joins CISCO NHL Live to talk about his milestone and his dance moves.

NEWARK -- New York Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi will miss his first game of the season Tuesday night. The team said he's "banged up" and lists him as day-to-day.

Stu Bickel, who had been playing forward, will move back and take Girardi's place on the blue line when the Rangers take on the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.

In addition, Rangers rookie forward Chris Kreider will make his return to the lineup after missing the last five games, including four in a row while dealing with bone chips in his ankle.

Kreider will start the game on a line with the recently acquired Darroll Powe and rookie call-up J.T. Miller, who is making his NHL debut.

Girardi, who played in all 82 games last season and 120 in a row, has missed only two games in the last five-plus seasons. He did not practice Monday, but the team said he was simply taking a "maintenance day." Girardi was on the ice for the morning skate Tuesday, but when the Rangers came out for warmups prior to the game he was not with them.

Girardi has two assists and is a minus-3 in eight games this season.

Ryan McDonagh, Girardi's normal defense partner, was paired with Anton Stralman in warmups. Marc Staal and Michael Del Zotto remained together with Bickel and Matt Gilroy making up the third pair.

Henrik Lundqvist is starting in net for the Rangers opposite the Devils' Martin Brodeur.

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks are the two hottest teams in the NHL at start of the season.

Tonight at HP Pavilion, the NHL's top two teams will see how they measure up against each other in their first meeting of the 2012-13 campaign.

The Blackhawks (7-0-2) lead the league with 16 points, just one more than the Sharks (7-1-1). San Jose opened the season with seven straight wins, the Blackhawks six. Chicago has yet to lose in regulation.

"Both of us have had good starts to the year," Sharks center Logan Couture said. "We want to see what they have, and I'm sure they want to see what we have. We're looking forward to an exciting game."

Added Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane: "Both teams seem to be really good this year and obviously want to prove something to the world."

The Sharks will have the home-ice edge Tuesday, but the Blackhawks should have an advantage in terms of energy. San Jose played at Anaheim on Monday night, a 2-1 loss to end the Sharks' eight-game run with at least a point. Chicago hasn't played since Saturday night at Calgary.

"Whether it's back-to-back or not, there's no excuses out here," Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said. "We're ready to play. We're going to go from there. There's going to be times throughout the season where everybody's tired. There's no excuses. They're big points early on. We're playing well and so are they, so it should be an exciting game."

Both teams have slowed down a bit since their blistering starts as opponents throughout the League have gotten back up to speed after the lockout. The Sharks averaged 4.6 goals in their first five games and got two goals from Patrick Marleau in each of their first four games. Now they've lost two straight, first 2-1 in a shootout to Nashville then 2-1 in regulation to the Ducks.

Before beating Calgary 3-2 in a shootout Saturday, the Blackhawks lost 3-2 to Minnesota and 2-1 to Vancouver, both times in shootouts.

"I think you could have predicted it was going to be wide open to start and then things would tighten up as the season goes on," Kane said. "They've been playing very good defensively all year, so hopefully we can sneak a few by them tonight. But for us, we've had a lot of success in this room offensively, five-on-five, every year I've been here. That's something we just have to continue to work at."

The Sharks' power play provided much of the offense during their fast start with 12 goals in 32 attempts. In the past four games, San Jose is just 1-for-18 on the power play. The Sharks will try to get back on track against the NHL's top-ranked penalty kill.

"They're going to come hard," Couture said of the Blackhawks' penalty killers. "They've got guys who are short-handed threats. They look for offense on it, so we got to be sharp, keep our shifts short, try to play in their end and just shoot the puck more.

"We just had a meeting to try to get it going. Obviously we started off well. We were supporting each other; we were getting pucks to the net. That's something we haven't done lately. We've left guys on islands by themselves in the zone and haven't gotten many shots on net. That's something we need to change."

The Blackhawks are preparing for a Sharks' power play that traditionally has been tough on opponents, especially at home.

"They have a great PP," Blackhawks center Dave Bolland said. "They're always moving around, they're never in the same spot, they're always moving from side to side. So we've got to be aware of where Marleau, where Joe [Thornton] is or any of them, or [Dan] Boyle. It's going to be a good test for us. It's going to be a great test."

For the Blackhawks and Sharks, this will be a proverbial "measuring stick" contest.

"We know that right now these are the two top teams in the West," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "The last couple years we've always had great games against San Jose, especially in this building. Even though they played last night, we always know it's going to be a high tempo. Regardless of what San Jose's capable of doing as a team, we know we've got to be way better than we were our last game in Calgary. So as a team it's more about us and how we're prepared to play in this locker room. If we get our game back on track, we'll give ourselves a good chance to win."