The Washington Capitals look to continue building after a poor start when they take on the mighty Boston Bruins.
The Capitals are coming off a huge 3-0 win against the Winnipeg Jets in which goalie Braden Holtby stopped 35 saves and obtained his third shutout of the season. "Goalies usually get too much credit for the good and too much blame for the bad, that's how it goes," Holtby said about the shutout win. "You could see in a game like this, it's not a shutout for myself, that's a shutout for the team."
With 17 points, the Capitals have climbed back into the playoff picture after losing six of their first seven. Mike Ribiero leads the team in scoring with 24 points, but Alex Ovechkin is starting to regain his star form with six points in his last four games.
Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins are coming off a controversial loss to the Montreal Canadiens that bumped them to second place in the Eastern Conference. The game was rife with penalties and Boston Coach Claude Julien even felt that the Canadiens were "embellishing" throughout the game. "It's frustrating because tonight as everybody saw, there's a lot of embellishment," said Julien after the loss. "And this is embarrassing for our game, the embellishing. And right now they've got over 100 power plays, so far, and it's pretty obvious why. And we're trying to clean that out of our game. And it's got to be done soon because it's not about tonight, it's about the game. And embellishment embarrasses our game. And we need to be better at that."
Regardless of the lost, the Bruins have a prime opportunity to jump back into first place. These two teams are meeting for the first time this season after Washington knocked out Boston in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.
Predictions: Boston Wins 5-1.
Start Time: 7 PM EST
TV: NESN, CSN-DC