Boston Bruins: 3 Things to Watch Tonight Against the Capitals
After sweeping a four-game homestand against the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Bruins begin a four-game road trip tonight against former teammate and captain, Zdeno Chara and the Washington Capitals.
The Caps are sitting on top of the East Division standings at 5-0-3 with 13 points, two points ahead of the 5-1-1 Bruins, and the 5-2-1 Flyers. With two games against the Capitals and then a two-game stop in Philly for a rematch with Flyers, this is an important week of hockey coming on the road for the Black and Gold.
Before we turn out attention to Philadelphia, let’s look ahead to tonight’s first of two games against Chara and the Caps in 48 hours. Here are three reasons to tune in for tonight’s battle.
3. Young Bruins defense against the powerful Capitals offense.
Washington has been one of the more offensive powerhouses early in the season. Thursday night, they trailed 3-0 following the first period against the New York Islanders, only to score five-second period goals on their way to a 6-3 victory.
The Caps have played the last four-game without Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and goalie Ilya Samsonov because of COVID-19 protocols. Earlier today, Ovechkin and Orlov cleared COVID-19 protocol and are on track to possibly play tonight.
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Boston’s young defense has been better in the first seven games of the season than most people thought before the season started. Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Jakub Zboril, Kevan Miller, and Jeremy Lauzon have done a nice job of holding down the fort. Matt Grzelcyk has run into injury issues and will miss tonight’s game with a lower-body injury. Connor Clifton is expected to take his spot in the lineup.
If Ovechkin is indeed cleared to return to join leading goal scorers Niklas Backstrom (six assists) and Tom Wilson, who each have four goals, this will be by far the Bruins defense’s toughest 60-minute challenge of the season so far.
2. Bruins face former captain for the first time in 2021.
The later the Zdeno Chara free agency went into the offseason, the more and more it looked like he might actually leave the Bruins after a 14-year run.
It became official on Dec. 30 when it was announced that Chara was heading to the Nations Capital to join the talented Capitals, who just happened to be a new division foe of Boston, who the Black and Gold will face eight times this season.
In eight games with his new club, Chara has been everything that they hoped he would be. He scored his first goal as a Capital Thursday night in the second period of their five-goal onslaught of the Islanders. He has two assists and is an impressive plus-7 on a team that has had a tendency early this season to give up their fair share of goals.
For 14 years, Big Z was the face and leader of the Bruins blue line. Over the last couple of years, he signed one-year contracts to return under team-friendly deals. He helped break a 39-year Stanley Cup drought in 2011 and also helped lead them to Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2013 and 2019.
Chara has moved on and so have the Bruins. It will be strange to see him wear the red, white, and blue tonight instead of the spoked-B. Don’t expect Big Z to easy on his old teammates.
1. David Pastrnak makes his season debut tonight against the Capitals.
When it was announced in October that David Pastrnak underwent hip surgery in September, the time frame for his return in the fall was mid-February. In the newly realigned East Division, the Bruins were hoping to hang around without their leading goal scorer from last season with 48 lamplighters.
The Bruins have survived the first seven games without Pasta and will get their top-line right wing back tonight to reunite with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. While the Bruins have survived without No. 88 and sit tied for second place in the division, having the gifted goal-scorer back is a sight we didn’t think we would see for another couple of weeks.
David Pastrnak will make his season debut tonight.
— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) January 30, 2021
Boston will be minus forwards Jake DeBrusk and Jack Studnicka tonight as the injuries just seem to pile up each night for coach Bruce Cassidy and company.
The Boston power play has been lethal through the first seven games with Nick Ritchie, Marchand, and Bergeron combining for all eight man-advantage goals. Now they add Pasta to the first unit and as weird as it sounds, that unit just got a whole lot better.
light. More. Bruins: Regulation Wins Carry More Weight in 2021
As the Bruins begin an early-season key four-game road trip, they do so getting back their most dangerous offensive player against one of the division’s most dangerous offensive teams. Game on!