Photo: @washcaps
The Washington Capitals are in Boston today, set to take on the Bruins tonight at TD Garden. The Caps will be looking to return to their winning ways following their first back-to-back losses of the season. Puck-drop is 7:00 PM.
Morning Skate
The Capitals held practice at TD Garden this morning at 11:30 AM. The practice lines for morning skate:
Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Laich-Sill-Galiev
Defensive Pairs:
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Schmidt
Ness-Chorney
It appears that Stanislav Galiev will get a rare start, and Michael Latta may be a healthy scratch for tonight’s game.
As per Isabelle Khurshudyan, Stanislav Galiev practiced on the second power-play unit, which means Andre Burakovsky is out of the power play units.
John Carlson did not participate in the morning skate. Carlson is on the team’s three-game road trip, but is unlikely to play tonight against Boston. Carlson is currently listed as day-to-day. Brooks Orpik also made the trip. His return is still listed as “week-to-week”.
Braden Holtby and Tuukka Rask are your confirmed starters in goal for tonight’s game.
Photo: washingtoncaps
Capitals @ Bruins
The Capitals (28-7-3) will look to get back in the win column tonight following their disappointing losses to two of the leagues worst teams. Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby is 8-2-0 in his career against Boston, with three shutouts, a 1.52 goals-against average and a .954 save percentage. Washington has won the last four games against the Bruins, out-scoring Boston 13-1.
The Boston Bruins (20-13-4) have sat idle since they were crushed 5-1 by the Montreal Canadiens in the Winter Classic on New Years day. It was the Bruins 4th loss in the last five games. The Bruins will be without David Krejci and Brad Marchand, who is out due to a suspension. However, the Capitals penalty-kill will get its great test tonight, as the Boston have the league’s best ranked power play at 28.6 percent. Washington has the second ranked power play at 25.6 percent.
Standings
News and Notes
- Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby is the NHL’s “second star” of December, which makes sense because he didn’t lose a game in regulation.
- On this date in 2010, Alex Ovechkin is named the 14th captain in team history.
- As per Isabelle Khurshudyan, No update on Carlson, except that he’s not playing tonight. “We’ll put him in when he’s ready. Don’t have a timeframe for that,” Trotz said.
- As per Zack Boyer, Trotz said he talked to Orpik Monday morning. “He’s made pretty good progress in the last week.” Hopes Orpik can get back on the ice soon.
- Capitals 2015 first-round draft pick, Ilya Samsonov got the start in net for Team Russia in their semi-final game against Team USA. Samsonov stopped 26 of 27 shots in the win for Team Russia.
- CSN Mid-Atlantic is celebrating Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin with a special three-part series set to debut this week, a fan contest to predict the game and period of the goal, and other multiplatform content as he approaches the milestone of 500 career NHL goals. The three half-hour shows will debut after Capitals games this week, immediately following Capitals Postgame Live, starting tonight (Capitals at Bruins at 7 p.m.) with Alex Ovechkin Great Moments. The other two shows will premiere Thursday, Jan. 7 (Capitals at Islanders at 7 p.m.) and Sunday, Jan. 10 (Capitals vs. Senators at 7 p.m.), respectively.
