Like a Filet-O-Fish, the Bruins are hot, but battered.

For the Bruins, the latest bumps and bruises have left the club officially without both Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha for Sunday’s Stadium Series showdown with the Lightning at Raymond James Stadium. Neither player traveled with the team down to Tampa, and neither made it to Tampa on their own between Friday and Saturday.

Based on Saturday’s practice inside the tent on the field at Raymond James, the Bruins are going to indeed move Marat Khusnutdinov back to center. Speaking after Friday’s optional practice in Boston, Sturm had indicated that that was going to be a likely move for the Bruins.

And the Bruins went with familiarity above all else with Khusnutdinov’s move back to the middle of the ice, too, as they decided to put him between Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Black and Gold have rolled with a Geekie-Khusnutdinov-Pastrnak line for just under 96 minutes of five-on-five play this season, with the Bruins outshot 46-40 but even in goals (4-4) over that sample.

Down on the bottom six, meanwhile, the Bruins will ice a fourth line with Sean Kuraly centering ex-Lightning agitator Mikey Eyssimont and Alex Steeves (healthy scratched for the two games).

Up a line, though, it looks like the Bruins are going to go with the bodyguard approach with Matt Poitras, as it will be the heavy-hitting combo of Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic on either side of him.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week for Poitras, all things considered.

This time last week, playing in this game or even being in Tampa was not in his plans, he’d admit. So much so that when he was called up to Boston earlier this week, he found new white gloves (every B’s skater is wearing white gloves for this game) in his locker room stall. Poitras, not a fan of new gear, had to tape ’em up and try to break them in on the fly. Of course, the gear is probably the least of the 21-year-old’s worries and the Bruins’ worries about the 21-year-old when it comes to this game.

But that’s also exactly why the Bruins feel that Jeannot and Kastelic are the perfect linemates to help Poitras handle the challenge of this tilt.

“That’s why I put [Poitras] with Jeannot and Kastelic, because those two guys are great veterans, great leaders, and they’ll take care of him,” Sturm said following Saturday’s skate. “Our guys do a really good job in the room, and I think for him, I just want him to go out there [and] be himself, play a good two-way game and don’t worry about scoring.” 

One line that will remain untouched for the Bruins, however, will be the new-look second line with Fraser Minten between Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt. This line combined for seven points in Thursday’s win over the Flyers (both Minten and Mittelstadt had three-point nights), and there’s really no need to tinker with anything Minten’s doing right now.

Instead, it would appear that the Bruins are going to up Minten’s workload, with Minten assuming the center position on Boston’s top power-play unit. In addition to his reps with the top unit, Minten went through some extensive tipping work at the end of Saturday’s practice.

And in what will be a matchup of the two hottest teams in the NHL, the Lightning will get a boost on their side of the rink, with Victor Hedman expected to rejoin the Tampa lineup after missing the last 22 games.