Okay, so I’m three months premature here, but I just had to start kicking the tires on the possible opening day lineup for the 2010-11 Boston Bruins.

First, before I list my possible line combinations, here are a few things related that we need to know:

1. According to capgeek.com, the B’s have a whopping $12,229 of cap-space remaining (not including Marco Sturm and his $3.5M salary which will be temporarily wiped away as he sits out the beginning of the season on the LTIR) and 20 roster players inked.
2. Blake Wheeler (arbitration) and second overall draft pick Tyler Seguin are still unsigned. We have a better chance of seeing Halley’s Comet tomorrow night than not seeing Seguin in Black-and-Gold, so he’s considered IN. And as far as Wheeler goes, I’m considering him OUT until it’s official.
3. We’re 77 days away from the start of the 2010-11 Bruins’ NHL season in Prague — a lot can happen from now til then. But for now, Marc Savard, Michael Ryder, and Tim Thomas are still members of this squad. So without further ado, here’s my starting lineup as of Jul. 24, 2010.

Milan Lucic–Marc Savard–Nathan Horton
Jordan Caron*–David Krejci–Michael Ryder
Mark Recchi–Patrice Bergeron–Tyler Seguin
Daniel Paille–Greg Campbell–Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara–Johnny Boychuk
Matt Hunwick–Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference–Mark Stuart **

Rask***
Thomas

*If Wheeler doesn’t come back (and in the neighborhood of $2.5M, I hope he does not) players like Brad Marchand and Joe Colborne will also be duking it out for a roster spot.
**Injuries and/or healthy scratches are bound to happen to anyone on every team…Adam McQuaid is the No. 7 blue-liner, followed by Yuri Alexandrov, Andrew Bondarchuk, and Jeff Penner.
***Tuukka Rask and Tim Thomas go through the normal routines of training camp…but Rask enters the season as the Bruins’ No. 1 netminder.

Now it’s your turn…how do you see the Bruins’ opening day lineup unfolding?