Marco Sturm tweaked his lineup as the Bruins face another major test against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night at Ball Arena (9 pm).
While Sturm said that Hampus Lindholm (lower body) is a game-time decision, he shuffled the forward lines. John Beecher will make his season debut on the fourth line and Jeffrey Viel will come out of the lineup. He kept Pavel Zacha on the first line with Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak, which finished the game in Vegas together. Morgan Geekie dropped to a second line with Casey Mittelstadt and Mikey Eyssimont. Viktor Arvidsson, still looking for his first goal as a Bruin, was dropped to the third line with Tanner Jeannot and Fraser Minten.
Sturm said he’s just looking for some balance.
“Against a team like Colorado, we need the whole package. We spread it out a little more to three lines or even four lines,” Sturm told reporters in Denver. “With Beech in the lineup, it gives us another killer and another faceoff guy…Hopefully there’s not going to be too many penalties but, yeah, we thought he’d be a good guy to have back in our lineup.”
Sturm said that he would be rotating guys in and out of the lineup.
“Sometimes, it’s not even fair,” acknowledged Sturm. “(Viel), he played great and it’s not fair but I look at the Colorado team and I look at the next day (against Utah) or the next with Florida (on Tuesday), it’s going to happen a lot and we need everyone on board.”
On top of the PK and faceoffs, Beecher’s speed can be of value against the high-flying Avs.
“Obviously you never want to be out of the lineup and I’m super-excited to get my chance here. I just want to go out there, keep it simple to start and I’ll get more and more comfortable as I go along,” said Beecher.
For Mittelstadt, it will be a brand new look.
“Mikey’s going to get in there and battle and come out with a lot of pucks and Geeks can score. I think it’s a good fit. I think I’m a good passer and I’ll try with Mikey to find Geeks to shoot it,” said Mittelstadt.
Like most of the top six, Mittelstadt had a rough game against Vegas, telegraphing a cross-ice pass on the power play that led to Vegas shorthanded goal. This is a homecoming of sorts for the centerman, who was obtained by the Avs at the deadline two years ago and signed by the team that summer only to be shipped to the B’s at the deadline last March.
He said he’s learning how not to be too tough on himself.
“I’m very hard on myself. Sometimes you almost care too much and it’s better to go out and play carefree and not care about the consequences as much,” said Mittelstadt. “It’s something I struggled with my whole career, not just in pro hockey. It’s something I’m definitely working on and going to continue working on. That’s one of the hard things. We’re all so competitive and to some degree we’re all perfectionists. Sometime you get a little hard on yourself and you get in that hole and use a shovel instead of a ladder (to get out of it).”
