It’s familiar faces in new places tonight as the Vancouver Canucks (10-6-3) visit the Boston Bruins (10-9-3) at TD Garden.
Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, Nikita Zadorov, and Elias Lindholm will all face the teams they finished last season with. Injured defenceman Derek Forbort, a Bruin last season, will miss out on the opportunity as he works his way back into the lineup. But the big news of the day is that Brock Boeser is back.

What we saw

Boeser returns to the Canucks lineup after missing seven games with a head injury suffered November 7th in Los Angeles. The team has gone 3-4 in his absence including Saturday’s 4-3 victory in Ottawa to open a six-game road trip. Boeser is closing in on a pair of significant milestones. He is five points away from 400 for his career and is nine games shy of 500. To make room for Boeser’s return, Max Sasson will be a healthy scratch after picking up an assist in his NHL debut on Saturday.
DeBrusk had his first two-goal game as a Canuck and also picked up an assist in the win over the Senators. His line with Kiefer Sherwood and Elias Pettersson accounted for three goals and seven points.
Sherwood has scored in three straight games and now has a share of the team lead with six goals on the season. He is one of five Canucks sitting with six goals (Boeser, Pettersson, Miller and Suter).
The Canucks have won seven straight road games and have a chance tonight to move within one of the franchise record of nine set back in 2010-11.
Quinn Hughes played a career-low 5:12 on Saturday before he was ejected after being assessed a cross-checking major and game misconduct. In the captain’s absence, Filip Hronek logged a season-high 27:38, had an assist and was +3 in the victory.
Kevin Lankinen starts in goal, meaning it’s likely going to be Arturs Silovs against the Penguins on Wednesday night.

The opponents

The Bruins are coming off a 2-1 win in Detroit on Saturday. Justin Brazeau and Brad Marchand scored their goals and Jeremy Swayman made 19 saves in goal. The Bruins are 2-0 under new head coach Joe Sacco who replaced Jim Montgomery last week. The team has given up one goal the two games since the coaching change.
David Pastrnak leads the Bruins with eight goals and 19 points. He also leads the NHL in shots with 89. Marchand, with six goals and nine assists, is the only other player on the Boston roster with more than 10 points. 
Elias Lindholm has three goals and seven helpers while Nikita Zadorov is still looking for his first goal as a Bruin to go along with five assists. He leads the team and is second in the league with 48 penalty minutes. He and Charlie McAvoy sit second and third in the NHL with 13 and 12 minor penalties respectively.
The Bruins are the lowest scoring team in the league averaging 2.32 goals per game. They have scored four goals in their last three games and have scored more than two goals in a game just once in their last seven outings.
A big part of the problem is a power play that sits 31st in the NHL at 12.8%. The Bruins lead the league in power play attempts with 86, but have managed just 11 goals so far. They are six for 50 (12.0%) on home ice. They have, however, scored a power play goal in three straight games so they’re showing signs of life with the man advantage.
The Canucks and Bruins split their two meetings last season with Boston posting a 4-0 victory while Vancouver won 3-2 in overtime on a Brock Boeser goal. The Bruins will visit the Canucks on December 14th.
Tonight’s referees: Dan O’Rourke & Eric Furlatt
Tonight’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse & Dave Tomlinson

What we heard

Rick Tocchet on getting Boeser back in the lineup: “He’ll play tonight. He came to me yesterday and he wants to play. Those situations, when you’re medically cleared, it’s the player’s decision I always think. A guy like Brock, he wants to play every game. He’s played a lot of hockey for us over the years, so it’s good to have a guy like that in the lineup.”
Tocchet on difficult decision to scratch Max Sasson: “That’s the hardest thing as a coach because he doesn’t really deserve to come out. I thought he played a really good game. But the message to him is that he could go in the next game against Pittsburgh. So stick with it and that’s really the message for guys like that.”
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