Bruins lineup vs. Red Wings: Krug, McAvoy paired on defense

Don’t get too excited that Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy are defensive partners for tonight’s preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden.



The exhibition season is a chance to try different things, but coach Bruce Cassidy likes having McAvoy and Kevan Miller as a pair. Miller played in Monday’s 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Quebec, so it makes sense to have Krug and McAvoy play together tonight.

“It’s something that I’m excited about and hopefully he’s excited about it as well,” Krug said. “I hope none of that denounces what me and Adam [McQuaid] has as a pairing because we’ve got a great thing going. We love playing with each other, but whoever they throw us on the ice with we’ll play with.”

Personally, I like having two offensive-minded defensemen as a pair, especially with Cassidy’s style of play. It can get reckless at times but it would add to the offense.

Realistically, the regular-season pairings will be: Zdeno Chara-Brandon Carlo, Krug-Adam McQuaid, Miller-McAvoy.

“Playing with Torey is awesome,” McAvoy said. “He’s a veteran guy, great teammate, great player, so he’s good to be out there with. Guys that can move the puck, you hope that you wont’ be in your zone very long when you play with guys like that. He likes to jump into the play and so do I. We’ll see how it goes tonight.”

Here are the lines and defensive pairings vs. the Red Wings: 

Lines

Jake DeBrusk-David Krejci-David Pastrnak

Frank Vatrano-Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson-David Backes

Danton Heinen-Austin Czarnik-Ted Purcell

Ryan Fitzgerald-Sean Kuraly-Jordan Szwarz

Defensive pairings

Torey Krug-Charlie McAvoy

Jakob Zboril-Adam McQuaid

Rob O’Gara-Brandon Carlo

Goalies

Anton Khudobin

Zane McIntyre