Washington Capitals
If there is one team that has had the Bruins number over the years, it’s the Caps. The Black and Gold have lost 17 of the last 19 games to Washington and having the Caps in their division and on the schedule will be fun to watch.
The matchup pits the Maurice Rocket Richard Award co-winners from last season, David Pastrnak of the Bruins and Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals. They finished tied for the league lead in goals at the end of the season with 48.
The Capitals underachieved under coach Todd Reirden the last two seasons and they made a change in the offseason that brought in Peter Laviolette and the first-year coach will no shortage of talent on the roster with Ovechkin.
Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie, and John Carlson return as the core pieces for the Capitals.
In net, Braden Holtby left in free agency for the Vancouver Canucks. Lundqvist joined the Caps after 15 years with the Rangers and 752 regular-season victories, but he announced last week that he is opting out of the upcoming season because of a heart condition. Youngster Ilya Samsonov, who many see as the long-term answer in Washington should see a majority of the time between the pipes.
These will be the toughest games on the Bruins schedule this season and sooner or later, they have to solve the Caps. It would go a long way for Boston to be able to at least split the games with Washington while taking care of business against the teams they should.
Regardless of what happens, this should be an entertaining season, one that the Bruins should hopefully end with a long playoff run in the spring and into the summer.