The Washington Capitals had ten days off prior to today’s afternooner against the Boston Bruins. The Caps – both the oldest and most injured team in the league – badly needed that time off, but now they must get the rust off quickly. This road game against the best team in the league will be about as hard as any regular-season game can get.
And the Caps will play it with some profound disadvantages.
First, the Bruins. With a 39-7-5 record, they are running away with the President’s Trophy. (My beloved New Jersey Devils have fallen off a cliff since December.)
The Bs have got a scorer outproducing Ovechkin (David Pastrnak), the single best two-way forward of the era (Patrice Bergeron), an elite offensive defender (Hampus Lindholm), the best goalie in the league (Linus Ullmark), and the hockey’s most online poster (Brad Marchand). Their power play is top-five, and their penalty kill is ranked first.
Their only sign of vulnerability: Boston lost three of its last four games (Carolina, Florida, Tampa). The Bruins enter today’s game just as rested as the Capitals.
Speaking of our preferred team, here’s just a few factors working against them today:
- TJ Oshie on the second line playing through a back injury
- Evgeny Kuznetsov in this midst of maybe his worst season yet, with his slipping defensive play magnified by having just two even-strength goals.
- Missing Nic Dowd, the secret ingredient in the team’s excellent bottom line.
- Slotting waiver-wire pick-up Nicolas Aube-Kubel at Ovechkin’s off-wing on the top line.
- Nicklas Backstrom‘s long-viability uncertain, albeit with an unlucky on-ice goal differential (five for opponents, one for Washington) making his play look worse than it may be.
- Missing one of their top defenders, John Carlson, to an indefinitely termed head injury.
- And their other top defender, Dmitry Orlov, seemingly playing through injury (to my eyes).
- A very weak power play, scoring at a bottom-five rate since the new year.
- Two goalies playing at combined league-average levels (Charlie Lindgren has saved 2.66 goals below average; Darcy Kuemper 2.66 goals above average).
That’s a lot of adversity heading into a roadie against the best team in the National Hockey League. Oh, and it’s the first game of a back-to-back.
As of Saturday morning, HockeyViz estimates the Capitals have a 54 percent chance of making the playoffs. Dom at the Athletic says it’s a 39 percent chance.
Now would be a good time for some hero stuff.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
