Dennis Seidenberg, who will make his Bruins debut tonight, will get a shot at playing alongside Zdeno Chara in a matchup role, most likely against Phil Kessel. Andrew Ference and Dennis Wideman will skate on the second pairing, with Johnny Boychuk and Matt Hunwick fighting for the No. 6 spot next to Mark Stuart.

"Hopefully that will be a good two-some," Claude Julien said of Chara and Seidenberg. "He's a very physical player. We've seen that before. He competes hard. He's hard to play against. Hopefully he gives us that dimension and helps us get that identity that we like about our hockey club."

* Ron Wilson won a fan in Tim Thomas when he tabbed the Bruins netminder for relief duty against Finland in the Olympic semifinal. It was the only action Thomas would see in Vancouver. "Timmy was great there," Wilson said. "He came knowing that Ryan Miller was probably going to play in every game. When that game got out of hand, without saying to our team that the game was over or to the Finns, I wanted to give Timmy the opportunity. I asked him if he wanted to go in for a cleanup role like that. He jumped at the opportunity. He was very grateful. Actually, a lot more grateful than I expected him to be."

* Don Cherry will drop tonight's ceremonial first puck. The former Bruins coach will also contribute to NESN's pregame and intermission reports.