Causeway gameday! Boston Bruins host not so Gr8 Capitals

The Boston Bruins, despite all of the adversity faced thus far, are hanging in there.  The team is still on a points streak, and the shockingly mediocre Washington Capitals are coming to town.

Move over, Stella!  It took the Boston Bruins awhile, but it seems like they may have gotten their groove back.  The team that looked atrocious in several early season games has strung together a decent stretch of play over the last two weeks.

The Bruins find themselves on a six game point streak (3-0-3).  Granted, 3 of those games were against sub-par teams in Vancouver, Buffalo, and Vegas.  And please, don’t be fooled by Vegas’ record, they are not a good team, this start is a fluke.  But the other three games were against solid competition in San Jose, Los Angeles, and Columbus.  Hopefully the team can continue to snow their opponents and get tough points.

More from Causeway Crowd

• Harrison, Toporowski shine in Prospects Challenge
• Obscure former Boston Bruins: Steven Kampfer
• Bruins release Prospects Challenge roster, schedule Tuesday
• Bruins release full “Historic 100” list ahead of season
• McAvoy, Lucic named to “Historic 100” list over the weekend

Right now, for a Bruins team trying to find its identity amid a whirlwind of injuries and roster adjustments, points are king, however you can get them.  If this team can figure out who they are around mid-season and are in the playoff mix at that time, February – April 2018 should be fun to watch.  Right now, with a few games in hand, the Bruins aren’t far from a playoff spot.

Now, onto the visiting Washington Capitals.  I have no idea whether they are slow playing everyone, attempting to lull the league into a false sense of security.  But I doubt anyone would have expected that 13 games into the season, the defending President’s Trophy winners would be 6-6-1.  That has them sitting 6th in the Metropolitan Division, behind teams like New Jersey, the Islanders, and Philadelphia.  Maybe they’re trying something new this year, and don’t want the pressure of going into the playoffs with the #1 seed, and everyone saying that this is their year.  Worth a shot, right?

Schedule

The puck should drop in the TD Garden in Boston, MA around 7:00 pm tonight.  The game will be on NESN for TV and 98.5 The Sports Hub on the radio.  The game will also air nationally on NHL Network for those who aren’t local to Boston.

What to watch for…

Wanna talk some weird practice lines?  Brad Marchand missed practice yesterday, but head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed it was just a maintenance day.  He should be back in the lineup tonight.  Cassidy also confirmed that Tuukka Rask would be the starter, and David Krejci is still out, pending re-evaluation.  It will be interesting to see the lines Cassidy rolls out to start the game.  But as we’ve become accustomed to, expect them to change mid-game if necessary.

The Bruins defense, missing Adam McQuaid but with a serviceable replacement in Paul Postma, is starting to mesh.  In Thursday night’s game against Vegas, the blueliners protected Rask well, and kept most shots from the outside of the ice.  Charlie McAvoy has been a dominant force, both in skill and physicality, on the back end.  The question tonight will be, can they shut down proven scorers like Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and TJ Oshie?

Next: Bruins get revenge on Golden Knights

Speaking of Alexander Ovechkin, there should be no debate that he is the NHL’s best goal scorer in the last decade.  But as Andre 3000 asked us, “What’s cooler than being cool?”  Ice cold.  That is the state in which Ovie finds himself right now.  The Great 8 scored 9 goals in the Caps first 5 games of the season.  In the last 8 games…1 goal.  And proof of how valuable he is to his team?  The Caps are 5-2-0 when Ovechkin records a point, and 1-4-1 when he doesn’t.