The Bruins are in The District to take on Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals tonight as part of a home-and-home series with the Caps. The B's will see the Caps again on Thursday when they open up their home schedule at TD Garden.
The Capitals enter tonight's game with a 4-1-0 record and seem poised to be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference again this year (..at least in the regular season). The Caps have won four straight since losing 4-2 to the Atlanta Thrashers on opening night. The Capitals are coming off of a 3-2 overtime victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.
The Capitals are a bit banged up on the blue line with several defenseman questionable or ruled out of tonight's game. Mike Green is expected to miss the game with a shoulder injury, former BU Terrier Tom Poti is questionable with a lower body injury, and highly-touted rookie John Carlson left Monday's practice early after experiencing pain in the leg as a result of blocking a shot during Saturday's game against Nashville.
The Bruins are looking to extend their winning streak to three games and head back to Boston with a 3-1-0 record. The B's downed the New Jersey Devils 4-1 on Saturday night behind some solid goaltending from Tim Thomas and offensive production from all four lines.
Boston Bruins @ Washington Capitals
7:00 PM ET
Verizon Center, Washington, DC
National TV: Versus
Canadian TV: TSN2
Online: NHL GameCenter Live
Radio: 98.5 FM The Sports Hub
SB Nation's: Capitals Blog: Japers' Rink
Get to Know the Washington Capitals:
Record: 4-1-0
Head Coach: Bruce Boudreau
Leading Goal Scorers: Alex Ovechkin (4 goals; 4-4-8) and Brooks Laich (3 goals; 3-2-5)
Goaltending:
Semyon Varlamov is back from the IR, but chances are Boudreau will stick with the hot hand.
Injury Report:
Note: John Carlson (leg) is also a question mark for tonight's game, but does not appear on the injury report.
Notes:
- Will Claude stick with Timmy or is it Tuukka Time?
- The Bruins lined up in practice on Monday the same way they have for the past two games, so look for the same lines tonight:
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Jordan Caron-Patrice Bergeron-Blake Wheeler
Mark Recchi-Tyler Seguin-Michael Ryder
Shawn Thornton-Gregory Campbell-Brad Marchand
Zdeno Chara-Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference-Johnny Boychuk
Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick
- The B's did a great job of getting to the front of the net and creating havoc on Saturday against the Devils. With a lot of the Capital's defensemen hurt, the B's need to find the open areas on the ice. Hopefully, the Caps will leave the slot as wide open as the Devils did on Saturday night.
- These two teams last met in the regular season back on April 11th in a contest that the Bruins won 4-3 in a shootout. If you remember this was the game that Tim Thomas threw a hissy-fit when Jason Chimera was pushed into him (see photo above).
- The Bruins are 3-4-3 over their last 10 games against Washington.
- Public Skate open thread gets started at 6:30. Puck drop is around 7:00.
- For more on tonight's game, check out Japers' Rink