Bruins vs Capitals 4/11/21: Defense could be an issue

The Boston Bruins return home after a three-game road trip to take on the Washington Capitals for the sixth time this season. So far this season, the B’s are 3-0-2 against the Caps as they’ve played pretty well against them.

The last matchup between these two teams was just three days ago as the Black and Gold took down Washington 4-2. This game saw the B’s dominate most of it, besides the two powerplay goals that the Caps scored within 19 seconds of each other.

Tonight may be different, however, as Boston will be missing their two top defensemen in Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy, and also veteran defenseman Kevan Miller. The B’s will be relying heavily in their young, inexperienced d-men to shutdown the Caps’ high-powered offense.

Because of this storyline, this game is intriguing. However, it’s also one that you may be afraid to watch because of the high chance that Boston gets blown out. If the B’s can shutdown Alex Ovechkin and co. it’ll be very encouraging, but the odds of this happening are very low.

Boston Bruins vs Washington Capitals projected lineups.

Boston Bruins
Record: 21-11-6 (48 points)

As I stated earlier, the B’s will be without the entirety of what has been their top defensive pairing in Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy. McAvoy has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury and has a chance to play Tuesday. Grzelcyk suffered an upper-body injury early in yesterday’s game against the Flyers and is considered day-to-day.

With Grzelcyk out, Jeremy Lauzon will move up to the top d-pair, Jakub Zboril will move up to the second pairing, and Jarred Tinordi will enter the lineup playing on the third pairing.

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Along with McAvoy and Grzelcyk, Kevan Miller will also be out tonight. However, he is not injured as this was a planned, load-management, game off as it’s the back leg of back-to-back games and he played yesterday.

Brandon Carlo is also still out with an upper-body injury, so Jack Ahcan will find himself in the lineup tonight playing in McAvoy’s normal spot and where Miller has been playing with McAvoy out on the first pairing. Connor Clifton and Steve Kampfer will play in their normal spots on the second and third pairings, respectively.

There will be no changes to the B’s forward lines for tonight as Trent Frederic is still out with an illness.

After three straight starts, including yesterday against the Flyers, Jeremy Swayman finally gets a break as Dan Vladar will get the start tonight. Tuukka Rask is still out with an upper-body injury but has a chance to play Tuesday. Jaroslav Halak is still out with COVID-19.

Expect the Bruins to line up like this tonight:

Marchand – Bergeron – Smith
Ritchie – Krejci – Pastrnak
DeBrusk – Coyle – Kuhlman
Blidh – Kuraly – Wagner

Lauzon – Ahcan
Zboril – Clifton
Tinordi – Kampfer

Vladar (Swayman)

Washington Capitals
Record: 26-11-4 (56 points)

I expect the see the same lineup that we saw in the last game against the Caps. The only difference will be that Vitek Vanecek will be in net instead of Ilya Samsonov.

Expect the Capitals to line up like this tonight:

Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Sheary – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Eller – Carr
Hagelin – Dowd – Hathaway

Dillon – Carlson
Orlov – Schultz
Chara – Jensen

Vanecek (Samsonov)

Where and when to watch Boston Bruins at Washington Capitals.

Time: 7 PM EST

Location: TD Garden

TV Broadcast: NESN, NBCSWA, ESPN+, SN

Radio Broadcast: 98.5 The Sports Hub

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With so many of their normal defensemen out tonight, this game is going to be much tougher than it usually would for the B’s. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how the young guys do against the first place Capitals.

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