Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
The Boston Bruins may have wins in five of their last seven games, but the losses are piling up, on and off the ice. Not only did the B’s get their heads kicked in by the Dallas Stars by a 5-3 final on Tuesday night without the services of top-line winger David Pastrnak (foot), but alternate captain Chris Kelly went down with a broken femur, and will be out for the next six to eight months.
Now, shorthanded (Pastrnak is not accompanying the B’s on this trip), the Bruins embark on a three-game in four nights road trip against some of the Eastern Conference’s elite with stops at the Verizon Center in D.C., Montreal’s Bell Centre, and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The trip’s first stop? The Nation’s Capital for a showdown with a Caps squad that’s 8-3-0 on the year -- including a 4-2-0 mark at home this year -- and one that decimated the Bruins in all three head-to-head games last season. Actually, not only did the Capitals sweep the season series with the Black and Gold, they shut them out in all three contests, and became the first team in league history to shut a team out in a season series (definition of a ‘season series’ constituting of three or more games).
Washington improved from a year ago, too, with the offseason additions of top-six wingers TJ Oshie (via trade with the St. Louis Blues) and Justin Williams (signed as a free agent).
So, yeah, just the game the B’s want to start this trip.
But if there’s a positive the Bruins can roll with heading into this one, it’s their road record.
For whatever reason, the Bruins come into tonight’s game with a perfect 5-0-0 mark away from TD Garden this year, and have outscored their opponents 22-to-10 on the road, while the power play has gone 6-for-17 (35.3%, the best road power play percentage in the league).
“We just have to keep going forward and get better as a team,… Loui Eriksson said. “We’ve been good on the team so far this season, so hopefully we can bring it on the road again.…
The Bruins have not won in Washington since Mar. 29, 2014.
Head coach Claude Julien and the Bruins will give the nod to Tuukka Rask. The 28-year-old took the loss on Tuesday behind a 14-of-19 showing at home, and comes into tonight’s tilt with just one win and a woeful .895 save percentage in 10 career games against the Caps. The Verizon Center is the lone Eastern Conference building that Rask has yet to record in, too, by the way.
Washington counters with Braden Holtby. The ace in the Capital crease had a night similar to Rask on Tuesday night -- Holtby stopped just 17 of 22 shots thrown his way by the New York Rangers -- and comes into play in search of a big bounceback effort. The good news is that Holtby’s done his part on home ice this season, with four wins and a .929 save percentage in six games, and comes into action with seven wins (three shutouts) and an absurd .953 save percentage in nine games against Boston.
- B’s forward Loui Eriksson has two goals and eight points in his last six games.
- Zdeno Chara has assists in five of nine games played this season.
- Center Ryan Spooner has two goals and five points in five road games this season.
- Washington captain Alexander Ovechkin has 16 goals and 36 points in 36 games against the Bruins.
- Defenseman John Carlson has gone four games without a point.
Other news and notes
Forward Tyler Randell and Zach Trotman are the expected healthy scratches.
With Kelly and Pastrnak out, the Bruins have recalled Max Talbot from Providence for this three-game road trip. The 31-year-old has appeared in two games with the Big B’s this season, and comes back to Boston after a three-game stint with Providence that included four assists and a plus-3 rating. Talbot is a veteran of 668 NHL games, 20 of which coming with the Bruins.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.