Top 3 ways Capitals can beat Bruins
The Washington Capitals are back in action tonight against the Boston Bruins. For the Bruins, it’s their lone visit to the District. Last season the Caps dropped two out of three against them with their lone win coming in the series finale.
Before we take a look at how the Caps can beat the Bruins, let’s take a look at the lines form morning skate today via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Brown
Protas-Strome-Mantha
Johansson-Eller-Oshie
Sheary-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Gustafsson-TvR
Kuemper
Lindgren
Extras: Snively, McMichael, Irwin
Here’s how the Caps can start the season off on the right foot and get a win tonight.
#3 No sling shots on the power play
We’ve all seen it. We’ve all hated it. We’ve all rolled our eyes when the Caps had a power play last season because of it. The Caps need to eliminate the sling shot on the power play and stop trying to look cute with the fancy passes that nine times out of 10 get broken up.
Here’s what the two power play units should look like tonight via Daily Face-off:
1st unit: T.J. Oshie, Dylan Strome, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson
2nd unit: Connor Brown, Marcus Johansson, Anthony Mantha, Dmitry Orlov, Erik Gustafsson
#2 Darcy Kuemper has to outperform whoever the Bruins start
Unlike the Bruins, who had an established goalie in Tuukka Rask for several years before he decided to hang up his skates, the tables have turned and now the Caps have that established goalie.
It is likely the Bruins will go with Jeremy Swayman but as of this writing that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Their other goalie is Linus Ullmark.
Swayman is 24 years old while Ullmark is 29. Let’s take a look at their numbers. Last season Swayman went 23-14-3 with a 2.41 goals against average and a .914 save percentage. Not too shabby but those numbers are a tad better than a Vitek Vanecek or Ilya Samsonov.
Ullmark went 26-10-2 with a .9187 save percentage and a 2.45 goals against average. He played in all three games against the Caps last season. He made 27 saves out of 30 shots in a blowout win for the Bruins on Jan. 10. 10 days later he made 14 saves on 17 shots. In their lone loss to the Caps, he had 29 saves on 32 shots.
Darcy Kuemper will have every eye on him as he looks to give the Capitals stability in the net. Something they probably haven’t had since 2019. He went 37-12-4 in the regular season last year with the Colorado Avalanche with a 2.54 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.
#1 Contain the pasta
No I’m not talking about actual pasta. In order for the Caps to beat the Bruins they have to contain their leading goal scorer from the last couple seasons in David Pastrnak.
Last season Pastrnak led the Bruins with 40 goals while adding 37 assists for 77 points. Everyone’s favorite player to dislike Brad Marchand added 32 goals and 48 assists for a team leading 80 points.
Those were both good seasons. Let’s dive into how Pastrnak did against the Caps in those three games last season. He actually suited up for two out of the three and both of those two games were those two wins. He had a total of four goals including two goals in both games.
Maybe the reason why the Caps won that third and final game was because of the absence of Pastrnak but they won’t be that fortunate tonight, unless of course he enters COVID protocol last minute.
Trending. Alex Ovechkin is a good fantasy start vs Bruins. light
Just for gee whiz let’s look at Marchand’s numbers too. He’s less of a threat but still a pest. In those three games against the Caps he had two goals and those two goals came in that infamous January blowout at Capital One Arena. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen tonight unless it’s the other way around.