Just the Facts:
The Time: High noon EST
The Place: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Place to Watch: NBCSN, TVAS, NHLTV, NESN, SportsNet
Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub
The Stakes: A win will give Boston 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. A loss will put them at 4th.
Know your Enemy:
- Alex Ovechkin was a fellow Richard winner along with David Pastrnak, with 48 goals in 68 games. During the round robin, he hasn’t scored...yet.
- Radko Gudas is technically the Caps’ leader in points during the round robin, with 2. He had 15 in the regular season.
- John Carlson was the leading point-getter on the Caps during the regular with 75 points, and is a regular on the power play. Definitely keep an eye on him.
- So far, Braden Holtby has been the Caps man in net. He’s also been...consistent, but not exactly great. His .898 over the past pair of games almost exactly mirrors his regular season SV%. Samsonov, who was the better of Washington’s goalies, is still nursing an injury.
Game Preview:
So! Here we are!
A team that has been slowly getting better, but has ultimately looked very pedestrian, rusty, and immensely frustrating against the Flyers and Lightning, about to face a team that has also looked pretty rusty and pedestrian against the Flyers and Lightning.
If nothing else, it should be a fun one.
Neither side has had much luck so far, Boston’s finally going to have what they think their playoff roster will look like for the first time since before Phase 2 began, and Washington will still be wondering if Braden Holtby can round back into form after a pair of frustrating losses. Still, questions abound: will the strong play of the Coyle line (usually because of what Charlie Coyle is doing) actually result in a goal this time? Will Chris Wagner remain the leading goalscorer for Boston? Will the first line finally round back into form? How will Ondrej Kase look after several quarantines and possible injury? Will the defense finally look as good as it did during the regular season?
The only real answer of course, is to find out around lunchtime.