Bruins vs. Capitals 9/26/21 PRESEASON PREVIEW: The trial of the youths begins here in DC

Just the Facts:

The Time: 5pm EST

The Place: Capital One Arena, Washington DC

Place to Watch: NHL Network (Caps feed, in all likelyhood)

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Know Your Enemy:

• Surprisingly, there’s very few new faces on this Caps team. Samsonov’s back, Ovie’s still here, Anthony Mantha’s settled in...Hell, they even got Vanecek back for almost nothing.
• Really, the only new name I think that bears any mention is Matt Irwin who’s....fine? Just okay?
• Not giving me a lot to work with here, Caps.

Game Preview:

Alright. Time to dust off the old conference alignments, settle in for the crushing realization that you will be up at 3am writing about olympic hockey again, and finally let the fact that the Boston Bruins hockey club will at long last be hitting the ice and playing games again!

Though this one...this one is mostly for the youth of the Bruins rather than anyone else.

While the Caps can deal with their own stuff, namely running back an otherwise unchanged roster, the big storylines coming into preseason are that 2nd line Center position and the 4th line, which could be poised to change quite a bit. As is per usual with preseason games, it’s deeply unlikely we see many roster regulars tonight, but it is a great opportunity for players like Jack Studnicka to show their stuff, hopefully within contexts of being a Center. Further, this could be a great chance for either Jeremy Swayman or Linus Ullmark to acquaint themselves to what the Bruins defense should look like, at least from a systems perspective.

How will these young B’s and P-B’s handle their first real test of the NHL season as they face the preseason Caps? Will we see a clear winner in the Coyle/Studnicka debate early? Tune in tonight and find out!