BOSTON – On what should be an emotional night at TD Garden, the Boston Bruins will look to give the city a lift, and they should get a lift from the return of two of their better players Wednesday.
Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand are expected to return to the lineup against the Buffalo Sabres after missing several games with a concussion. Bergeron missed six games; Marchand has been out the past two.
The Bruins-Sabres game will be the first professional sporting event in Boston since the explosions near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
Forward Carl Soderberg, who joined the Bruins for morning skate for the first time since signing a contract with the team last week, will not play.
The Sabres demoted Luke Adam to Rochester of the American Hockey League. It appears they’ll start Ryan Miller in net after Jhonas Enroth made the prior two starts.
Here are the projected lineups for each team:
BRUINS
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Tyler Seguin
Gregory Campbell – David Krejci – Jaromir Jagr
Daniel Paille – Chris Kelly – Nathan Horton
Milan Lucic – Rich Peverley – Shawn Thornton
Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton
Scratched: Kaspars Daugavins, Carl Soderberg, Jay Pandolfo, Matt Bartkowski, Aaron Johnson, Adam McQuaid
SABRES
Thomas Vanek – Cody Hodgson – Tyler Ennis
Kevin Porter – Steve Ott – Brian Flynn
Nathan Gerbe – Jochen Hecht – Patrick Kaleta
Marcus Foligno - Drew Stafford – John Scott
Christian Ehrhoff – Andrej Sekera
Scratched: Mikhail Grigorenko
Injured: Alexander Sulzer, Ville Leino, Tyler Myers