The Bruins (30-15-7) host the Joe Thornton and the Western Conference San Jose Sharks (27-19-6) at the TD Garden this afternoon at 1:00 p.m.

Below are some news and notes from Claude Julien’s brief  pregame press conference.

• Zach Hamill, who was called up from AHL Providence, will be lined with Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder.
• Tyler Seguin will be playing right wing on the “Merlot Line” with Shawn Thornton lined to the left, and Gregory Campbell in the middle.

“It’s taking a little bit of responsibility away from Tyler and letting him focus on offense a little bit more.” said Julien.

• The coach remains diplomatic and tight-lipped on the Daniel Paille suspenion talks:

“Well as I said yesterday it’s a respect for the rule and we understand what the league and everybody else is trying to do,” he said. “So you have to respect it and move on with it and again whether it’s too severe or not this isn’t our place to talk about it since it’s what the league is looking for in everybody, so we just have to move on. ”

Tim Thomas (25-5-6) will be in the cage this afternoon. Julien also said the defensive pairings will remain the same…so another healthy scratch for Mark Stuart?

12:31 p.m.: Antti Niemi will start for San Jose (14-13-3, 2.75 GAA, .911 Save %)

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Lineup per warm-ups (12:35 pm):
Lucic–Krejci–Horton
Marchand–Bergeron–Recchi
Wheeler–Hamill–Ryder
Thornton–Campbell–Seguin

Chara–Kampfer
Seidenberg–Boychuk
Ference–McQuiad

Thomas
Rask