One opponent the Washington Capitals will see is the Boston Bruins.
When the NHL returns to play, it’ll begin with a play in round for some teams but not the Washington Capitals. Instead, the Caps will have to take part in a three-game round robin and one of their opponents will be the Presidents’ Trophy winning Boston Bruins.
The Bruins finished the season with a 44-14-12 record with 100 points in 70 games, accumulating a points percentage of .714. The Caps took on the Bruins three times this season, winning two of those three.
The first game came on Nov. 16 in Boston where the Caps got regulation goals from Travis Boyd and T.J. Oshie and winning the game in the shootout thanks to Jakub Vrana and Braden Holtby.
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They next met in D.C. on Dec. 11 where the Caps won 3-2 behind two goals from Oshie, including the goal of the year, and a game-winning tally in the third period from John Carlson.
The final meeting came on Dec. 23 in a 7-3 loss in Boston. Alex Ovechkin, Lars Eller and Garnet Hathaway scored for Washington.
In hindsight, the Caps played well for the most part in the regular season series and will thankfully have to deal with them for one game. The way to beat the Bruins is to contain their most dangerous weapon.
David Pastrnak split the Rocket Richard Trophy with Ovechkin as they each scored 48 goals on the season. The Caps defense must contain them and that means players like Brendan Dillon and Carlson will have to step things up. So will Michal Kempny.
The Caps offense will also have to step up. We know Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom will bring their A game but we need guys like Evgeny Kuznetsov to help carry the load as well. We know Kuzy has the potential to dominate just like he did in the 2018 playoffs.
Why the offense will need to step up is because this game will ultimately come down to the performance of the goaltenders, especially Braden Holtby and Tuukka Rask.
Holtby we know will bring it in the playoffs like he always has. Rask finished the regular season with a 26-8-6 record with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. As Caps fans though, we’d rather face him than deal with their backup Jaroslav Halak.
All in all, it should be an entertaining game when these two teams meet up to determine their seeding for the big dance.