Bruins face off against Capitals in DC

For the third time in their first ten games, the Bruins will face Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. The Boys in black and gold are in Washington, DC for a Friday night tilt with the Caps before heading home to take on the St. Louis on Saturday night. The Bruins swept the Capitals in their two game home-and-home series on October 19th and 21st with 3-1 and 4-1 wins respectively.

The Bruins enter tonight's contest with a 7-2-0 record and are riding a 3-win streak. The B's have yet to lose a game on the road (not counting the "home" game they played in Prague) and have a perfect 5-0-0 road record. The Bruins are also undefeated when Tim Thomas is between the pipes. The veteran goalie is 7-0-0 on the season with a 0.72 GAA, .977 Sv %, and 3 shutouts.

The Capitals are off to an 8-4-0 start in the closely contested Southeast Division. The Caps have been a team that is very tough to play at Verizon Center in recent years. This year, Washington is 5-1-0 at home with their only loss in Chinatown coming against the B's on October 19th in a game that the Bruins won 3-1. The Capitals are coming off of a 5-4 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night at Verizon Center.

Alex Ovechkin has led the way for the Caps offensively this season with 15 points (7-8-15) in 12 games. However, the Caps' captain has been shutdown by the Bruins stingy defense and has not recorded a point this season against the B's. The Atlanta Thrashers are the only other team to keep Ovechkin's name off the scoresheet so far this season.

Injury Report

Notes:

- GQ recently published an interesting look at the life of Alex Ovechkin away from the rink.

- The Capitals assigned defenseman Brain Fahey to the Hershy Bears.

- The Bruins own the leagues' best goal differential at +16. They outscored their opponents 29-13 through the first 9 games of the season.

- At the time of writing, the Capitals were -145 favorites tonight.

- The game starts at 7:00 and can be seen on NESN in the New England area and NHL Network (US) outside the market. 98.5 The Sports Hub will have the game on radio.

- For more on tonight's game, check out Japers' Rink

"I'm wondering, 'Who's this chubby little goalie that's not allowing any goals in?' " Boudreau said. "When he was in Providence, he'd take his mask off, his face would be really red and I'm going, 'Wow, he can't keep this up,' but he always did."

- Current Washington Capitals Head Coach and Fromer Manchester Monarch's bench boss Bruce Boudreau on Tim Thomas (via The Washington Post)