Bruins label Seidenberg, Marchand game-time calls

NEW YORK -- Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and forward Brad Marchand were labeled game-time decisions by Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien on Wednesday morning.

The Bruins (2-0) will look for their second win in three games against the New York Rangers (0-2) at Madison Square Garden (7:30 ET, NBCSN).

"They're out there this morning. I'm going to leave it as a game-time decision," said Julien, who wasn't on the ice for the skate. "I'm very hopeful for both of them. But I'll see after this morning's skate and after warmup, it'll be better to make those decisions then."

Seidenberg logged 23:59 of ice time in the Bruins' season-opening 3-1 win against the Rangers, but was scratched for Monday afternoon's 2-1 shootout win against the Winnipeg Jets with a lower-body injury. Rookie Dougie Hamilton moved to the top defense pairing with Zdeno Chara and acquitted himself well with three shots in 23:27 of ice time.

A shortened season coupled with the ability to plug in a capable defender like Aaron Johnson and slide Hamilton into a bigger role allows the Bruins to be more cautious with Seidenberg.

"You have to think about that," Seidenberg said. "With so many games coming up, you need to rest, because you don't have any time to rest at all. If you only miss a couple of games, whereas you hurry back and miss more, you're going to miss 20, so you really have to be smart about what you do and how you come back."

Julien said his team overall is healthy and he doesn't mind using patience when it comes to his injured players.

"We're no different from any other team in a shortened schedule," Julien said. "There's going to be a lot of maintenance that we'll have to take care of and be a little bit more cautious the way the schedule is with playing every second night. So far, I think our team is in pretty good shape."

Marchand missed practice Tuesday with what Julien termed a maintenance day and was one of the first skaters off the ice at practice Wednesday, a positive sign for his availability against the Rangers.

With the status of two key players up in the air, here's what the Bruins lineup could look like as they try to move to 3-0:

Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Nathan Horton

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Tyler Seguin

Chris Bourque – Chris Kelly - Rich Peverley

Daniel Paille – Gregory Campbell – Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara – Johnny Boychuk

Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton

Andrew Ference – Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask

Anton Khudobin

With Seidenberg a scratch Monday, Hamilton moved up to the top pairing, Boychuk dropped down to play with Johnson, and Ference was next to McQuaid.

If Marchand can't go, Lane MacDermid would find himself in the lineup. The forward lines above would become null and void if the 23-year-old scrapper finds himself on the fourth line against the Rangers.

Follow Dave Lozo on Twitter: @DaveLozo