Game Day Thread: Bruins @ Capitals

The Bruins are on the road again, playing the Washington Capitals on the second game of a road trip.

Last time in Bruins Hockey…

The Bruins visited the Flyers, but could not bring either Jaro Halak – who is in the league’s COVID protocol, or Tuukka Rask, who is nursing a back injury. So they have taxi-squad call-ups’s Dan Vladar & Jeremy Swayman. A half hour before puck drop, the Bruins abnnounced that #1 D-man Charlie McAvoy was ualso unable to play. Not a great start.

However, the Bruins got off to a pretty good start, and scored first with a Bergeron 5×5 goal, a nifty sweep in at the tip of his stick, which would be the Bruins captain’s 900th career point. Later in the period, they followed up with a power play goal, once again, credited to Bergeron. This was a pretty good period of play, with fairly even shot counts, but the Bruins being the better team.

The second period was not so favorable. The Bruins could not establish zone time, could not clear their defensive zone, and gave up some 26 shots on net. Fortunately, rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman was up to the task, letting in only two and recovering quickly. The Bruins would go into the 2nd intermission tied with their opponents.

Brad Marchand clearly wanted no part of another loss – OT or otherwise to Philly, and scored a shorthanded go-ahead goal. Patrice Bergeron would score an empty netter, for a hat trick, and sealing the victory.

The Bruins are now at 20-10-6 which still has them at 4th in the MassMutual East division by victory points, 8 points behind the Caps and the Isles.
They are also 4th in the division with a points percentage of .631.

What will be the lines today?

The lines were getting back to normal, but they are pretty messed up right now.

The Injury Report: Ondrej Kaše is skating, Tuukka is still out, and Halak is still on COVID quarrantine. Brandon Carlo is out, week-to-week, with a different upper-body injury. Charlie McAvoy is still out with his upper body injury – “feeling better” but still in Boston, not on the road.

Pasta has been swapped to Krejci’s line for the last few games. Craig Smith has been on Bergeron’s right side. Zach Senyshyn has been playing on Charlie Coyle’s right side, but will be shelved tonight in favor of Karson Kulman, as Chris Wagner resumes his usual spot on the game-day roster.

Trent Frederic is questionable for tonight with a non-COVID illness. Will we see Bjork? Nope, Blidh.

Tuukka Rask remains out. Jaroslav Halak remains out. Jeremy Swayman is in net. Dan Vladař is his backup.

Bruins Forward Lines
Brad Marchand	Patrice Bergeron	Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie	David Krejci	David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk	Charlie Coyle	Karson Kuhlman
Anton Blidh	Sean Kuraly	Chris Wagner
Bruins Defensive pairs
Matt Grzelcyk	Kevan Miller
Jeremy Lauzon	Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril	Steven Kampfer
Bruins Goaltending
#1 Jeremy Swayman	(#80 Dan Vladař)

Tonight’s opponents are the Washington Capitals. The Caps are leading the division – in points, and in points percentage, tied with the Islanders. This will be the first time facing the Caps since the return of Tom Wilson and Brandon Carlo to the lineups of both teams, though Carlo has since left the Bruins lineup again due to injury. There is no chance of grudges being held or the occurrence of extracurricular activities /s.
Richard Panik has been pushed through waivers and Daniel Carr brought up. Carr will probably displace Sprong.
Ilya Samsonov will be in net.
(h/t Daily Faceoff and the Washington Post’s Samantha Pell @SamanthaJPell):

Capitals Forwards
#8 Alex Ovechkin — #92 Evgeny Kuznetsov — #77 T.J. Oshie
#73 Conor Sheary — #19 Nicklas Backstrom — #43 Tom Wilson
#13 Jakub Vrana — #20 Lars Eller — #28 Daniel Carr
#62 Carl Hagelin — #26 Nic Dowd — #21 Garnet Hathaway

Capitals Defense
#4 Brenden Dillon — #74 John Carlson
#9 Dmitri Orlov — #2 Justin Schultz
#33 Zdeno Chara — #3 Nick Jensen

Capitals Goaltending
#30 Ilya Samsonov
(#41 Vitek Vanecek)

Officiating
Bruins vs. Capitals
Referee: Kelly Sutherland #11
Referee: Brandon Blandina #39
Linesman: Kory Nagy #97
Linesman: Andrew Smith #51