Bruins look to take control of series, lineups for Game 4

Wednesday night, the Boston Bruins put themselves in front of the Washington Capitals, taking a 2-1 series lead with a 3-2 double overtime victory. With the B’s being at home for Game 3, and for tonight, Game 4, they took the wind out of the Caps sails and took all momentum for this series.

With the win Wednesday night, giving the B’s a 2-1 series lead, they also brought their historical chances of winning the series from 48.5% to 67.6%. A win tonight would not only give the Black and Gold a 3-1 series lead, but also almost guarantee a series win as teams that win Game 4 to go up 3-1 have a historical series win percentage of 89.8.

While they won Game 3, the B’s still have some things to work on for Game 4. Their second defensive pairing of Mike Reilly and Brandon Carlo struggled, but I expect them to have a bounce back game tonight, and the fourth line of Sean Kuraly, Curtis Lazar, and Chris Wagner continued to struggle.

Boston will need better performances  from both Reilly and Carlo, and the fourth line tonight if they want to win, especially if they don’t want to go to another overtime.

Boston Bruins – Washington Capitals Game 4 projected lineups.

Boston Bruins (3rd seed)
Lead series 2-1

Head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed that the B’s will be going with the same lineup as Game 2 and Game 3. This means that defenseman Jeremy Lauzon is still out with an injury and that Tuukka Rask will be between the pipes.

Expect the Bruins to look like this tonight:

Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
Hall – Krejci – Smith
Ritchie – Coyle – DeBrusk
Kuraly – Lazar – Wagner

Grzelcyk – McAvoy
Reilly – Carlo
Clifton – Miller

Rask (Swayman)

Washington Capitals (2nd seed)
Trail series 1-2

Head coach Peter Laviolette once again is refusing to say what his lineup will look like for tonight.

We can kind of guess who will be in net as Game 3 starter Ilya Samsonov was the first goaltender off the ice at the Caps’ morning skate. So, he’s most likely the starter for tonight. Additionally, with Craig Anderson not dressing for Game 3, he’ll probably be backing up tonight.

Caps’ forward T.J. Oshie once again didn’t participate in the Caps’ morning skate. But he didn’t before Game 3 as well and still played. Center Lars Eller took part in the morning skate, but he also did before Game 3 and didn’t play. So both of their statuses are unclear for tonight.

If both Oshie and Eller can go tonight, I would expect Eller to go in at 3C., moving Michael Raffl over to 3RW, making Daniel Carr a healthy scratch. With the Caps down in the series, I expect both to play tonight.

Expect the Capitals to look like this tonight:

Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Mantha – Backstrom – Wilson
Sheary – Eller – Raffl
Hagelin – Dowd – Hathaway

Orlov – Carlson
Dillon – Schultz
Chara – Jensen

Samsonov (Anderson)

Where and when to watch Boston Bruins – Washington Capitals Game 4.

Time: 6:30 PM EST

Location: TD Garden

TV Broadcast: NESN, NBCSWA, NBCSN, TVAS, SN360, SNE, SNO, SNP

Radio Broadcast: 98.5 The Sports Hub

With all of the momentum in the series, I think the B’s have a good chance at extending their series lead to 3-1 tonight. However, the game could go either way. And, if the Caps can win tonight, the rest of the series could go either way.