Fredrik Claesson was also on the ice today after receiving a two-game suspension for a dangerous check in this week's loss to the Bruins and will miss both games this weekend as a result.
"Of course I'd like to be playing and trying to help the team as much as I can but I respect their decision," said Claesson about the league's ruling this morning. "I just got bag skated so I kind of regret it now."
Prior to Wednesday's contest in Boston, Claesson had only recorded 10 penalty minutes in 79 career NHL games and when recalling the incident he explained that it was a split-second decision that resulted in an ill-timed hit.
"Both of us came in a weird situation and I saw him try to take a bad pass," said Claesson. "I tried to step up and attempted to hit his shoulder or chest. I think I hit a little shoulder and the rest on the head. I'm glad he's fine and he got back to playing."
With Claesson's absence, Ben Harpur will draw into the line-up in his place.
No changes are expected to the forward personel for tonight's game but there was some line-shuffling that took place during the morning skate. Most notably, Tom Pyatt flanked Derick Brassard and Mark Stone during the line rushes while Filip Chlapik skated alongside Mike Hoffman and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
Boucher elaborated on his lines after practice and noted that Chlapik could also see some reps with Brassard and Stone should he be required to make an in-game adjustment to slot Pyatt back with Pageau in a shutdown role against the Blue Jackets' top line.
Here's how the lines and pairings looked this morning via Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia:
