Bruce Cassidy confirms the Bruins are down 2 players on Sunday.

The Boston Bruins will face off against Eastern Conference rivals the Washington Capitals on Sunday in something that could prove to be a small preview of a potential Stanley Cup playoff matchup down the line, but the Bruins will be doing it with the lineup considerably diminished.

Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy has confirmed that the team will be without two important players for Sunday afternoon's game, veteran defenseman Hampus Lindholm and veteran forward David Pastrnak. Both players will be sidelined due to injury, and given the important role that they both play for the Bruins this will significantly impact the strength of the Bruins lineup on Sunday.

Pastrnak has been out for most of the week after suffering an injury during the third period of Monday's overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, missing both Tuesday's game against the Detroit Red Wings and Friday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning as a result of that injury. Cassidy has not indicated when we might expect to see Pastrnak back in the lineup, but hopefully he'll be back sooner rather than later.

Lindholm finds himself in a similar situation as Pastrnak, having suffered an injury earlier in the week. Lindholm was injured on Tuesday against the aforementioned Red Wings, leaving that game in the second period due to the injury. Like Pastrnak, Lindholm was also held out of Friday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning and it seems like the Bruins are giving him at least one other game off to recover from this particular ailment. Like in Pastrnak's case there's been no indication of when we can expect to see Lindholm back in the lineup, however Cassidy hinted on Thursday that he was hopeful Lindholm would be back soon and perhaps that is a sign that his situation is a little less serious.

Pastrnak has 38 goals and 33 assists for the Bruins this season for 71 points in just 69 games played, while Lindholm already has 4 points (no goals and 4 assists) through his first 7 games since being traded to the Bruins prior to the trade deadline by the Anaheim Ducks.

The Bruins lineup is expected to look like this:

Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk
Hall-Haula-McLaughlin
Frederic-Coyle-Smith
Foligno-Nosek-Lazar

Forbort-McAvoy
Grzelcyk-Carlo
Reilly-Brown

Ullmark