Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Capitals will end their regular-season series against the Boston Bruins on Monday at Capital One Arena (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network locally, NHL Network nationally). Washington is 3-2-1 (.583 points percentage) in their last six games against Boston, including a 3-0 shutout win at TD Garden on February 10 and a 3-2 shootout loss in the District 15 days ago.
Schedule
Boston: ends two-game Metropolitan Division road trip after a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday in their first game in four days, rings out regular season vs. Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at home
Washington: closes out two-game homestand, stretch where they host nine of 14 (5-6-2 so far) following a 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, plays final home game of regular season; opens set of back-to-backs to close out regular season with the Philadelphia Flyers awaiting them for a Tuesday night tilt at Wells Fargo Center
How Each Team Is Doing
Boston: has won five of their past six, a stretch that began in D.C., since dropping three of their previous four
Washington: has won two of their last three since snapping six-game winless streak (0-4-2)
Standings
Boston: 47-18-15 (.681 points percentage — first in Atlantic Division, tied for second in Eastern Conference with Carolina Hurricanes); point up on Florida Panthers for division lead with a game in hand, which they will play on Monday; three behind New York Rangers (one) for East lead
Washington: 38-31-11 (.539 points percentage — fourth in Metropolitan Division, tied for eighth in Eastern Conference with Detroit Red Wings, who also have two games remaining, and Philadelphia — one); three points behind New York Islanders (with each team down to two left) for third place in Metropolitan Division; one ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins (two) in wild-card standings
Team Leaders
Pastrnak is tied for sixth in the NHL in goals and 10th in assists in addition to solely sitting in fifth in points. Carlson (second) and McAvoy (seventh) are among the league leaders in ice time. Pastrnak has at least 18 more goals, 24 more assists, and 42 more points than any other Bruin.
Team Statistics
Boston ranks 10th in goals, seventh in penalty-killing efficiency, and is tied for fifth in goals-against. Both teams’ shots-against averages are in the bottom-10 while Washington is the fourth-worst on faceoffs.
Both teams do not have great underlying metrics at five-on-five but Boston trails just the Vancouver Canucks (10.63%) and Detroit (10.06%) in shooting percentage and Winnipeg Jets (.9377) and Florida (.9298) in save percentage. Their PDO is tied with Vancouver for the NHL lead.
Expected Goalie Matchup
Swayman is tied for eighth in save percentage and sits alone in that spot in goals-against average. Lindgren is tied for fourth in shutouts, one of which came against Boston in February when he stopped all 18 that he faced.
Injuries/Illnesses
Boston
- LW Milan Lucic (personal)
- C Matthew Poitras (shoulder)
- D Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
- RW Justin Brazeau (upper-body)
Washington
- D Ethan Bear (NHLPA players assistance program)
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- D Rasmus Sandin (upper-body)
- D Nick Jensen (upper-body)
Projected Lines
Boston
Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Jake DeBrusk
Danton Heinen — Pavel Zacha — Pastrnak
John Beecher — Morgan Geekie — Trent Frederic
Jakub Lauko — Jesper Boqvist — Pat Maroon
Hampus Lindholm — McAvoy
Matt Grzelyck — Brandon Carlo
Kevin Shattenkirk — Andrew Peeke
Swayman
Linus Ullmark
Scratched: LW James Van Riemsdyk, D Matthew Lohrei, D Parker Wotherspoon
Washington
Ovechkin — Connor McMichael — T.J. Oshie
Aliaksei Protas – Strome – Tom Wilson
Max Pacioretty — Hendrix Lapierre — Sonny Milano
Beck Malenstyn — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary — Carlson
Alexander Alexeyev — Dylan McIlrath
Trevor Van Riemsdyk – Vincent Iorio
Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: RW Ivan Miroshnichenko, C Mike Sgarbossa, D Lucas Johansen
Betting Odds (BetMGM)
Boston: -160, Washington: +135
Over-under: 5.5 (-110 over/under)
By Harrison Brown
