Game Day Thread: Bruins @ Caps

The Bruins are in Washington DC, facing the Capitals for the 8th and final time this season. It is also the final game of the regular season for the Bruins, and indeed, the entire East division. It will be broadcast on NHL Network, NESN+, NBC Sports Washington DC, and NHL.tv. On the radio on 98.5 the Sports Hub, the beltway’s WJFK, and CapsRadio24/7

Last time in Bruins Hockey…

The Bruins were playing the Islanders, for the final time this season, at the TD Garden.
They won in OT, locking themselves into the 3rd playoff spot, and a 1st round matchup against… the Washington Capitals.

What will be the lines today?

Well there is still a little movement with the forward lines.

The Injury Report: Ondrej Kaše was back, but left the game . Charlie Coyle left the game early after getting hit by a puck on Tuesday and will probably not play today.

Well, given the circumstances of the game, the Bruins are aggressively resting players.

Here's the full list of Bruins regulars not playing today, per Cassidy:

Bergeron
Marchand
Pastrnak
Krejci
Hall
Smith
Kuraly
Coyle
Kase
Rask
McAvoy
Grzelcyk
Reilly
Carlo
Lauzon
Miller@conroyherald: "Quite the list."

Cassidy: "You asked."

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 11, 2021

Well, with that many players out, they’ll need to call up additional players to round out a 21-man roster. They’re short about 5 forwards and 2 defensemen…

Hearing Boston plan for black aces still TBD, but Providence players on ice in Pawtucket this morn were Jack Studnicka, Cameron Hughes, Dan Vladar, Jack Ahcan, Zach Senyshyn, Urho Vaakanainen, Oskar Steen

— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) May 10, 2021

That sounds about right. There was no AM practice or press availability today, so no one outside of Bruce Cassidy really has any clue how that list of players is going to muster out into lines.
With Bergeron, Krejci & Marchand out, Nick Ritchie, Steve Kampfer, and Chris Wagner are your assistant captains for tonight.

Tuukka Rask is out, Jeremy Swayman is in net with Dan Vladař as his backup.

Bruins Forward Lines
Jake DeBrusk	#6 Curtis Lazar	Chris Wagner
Nick Ritchie	Greg McKegg	Zach Senyshyn
Trent Frederic	#23 Jack Studnicka	#62 Oskar Steen
Anton Blidh	#53 Cameron Hughes	Karson Kuhlman
Bruins Defensive pairs
Jakub Zboril	Connor Clifton
#84 Jarred Tinordi	Steven Kampfer
#54 Jack Ahcan	Urho Vaakanainen
Bruins Goaltending
#1 Jeremy Swayman	(#41 Jaroslav Halak)

Tonight’s opponents are the Washington Capitals. The Caps are second in the division – in both points, and in points percentage, and are the Bruins’ 1st round playoff opponent. As this is the last game of the season and has no playoff implications, the Caps are being generous holding players out tonight. T.J. Oshie and John Carlson (lower-body) are both out. Alex Ovechkin (also lower-body) is a game-time decision. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov are both in COVID protocol. They have called up Philippe Maillet from their taxi squad.

Vitek Vanecek is in goal. Not sure if he’s backed up by Anderson or Fucale.
(h/t Daily Faceoff and the Washington Post’s Samantha Pell @SamanthaJPell):

Capitals Forwards
#8 Alex Ovechkin — #19 Nicklas Backstrom — #39 Anthony Mantha
#73 Conor Sheary — #20 Lars Eller — #17 Michael Raffl
#10 Daniel Sprong — #16 Philippe Maillet — #43 Tom Wilson
#62 Carl Hagelin — #26 Nic Dowd — #21 Garnet Hathaway

Capitals Defense
#9 Dmitri Orlov — #2 Justin Schultz
#4 Brenden Dillon — #57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
#33 Zdeno Chara — #3 Nick Jensen

Capitals Goaltending
#41 Vitek Vanecek
(#31 Craig Anderson)