Capitals at Bruins
Coming off a season in which they won the Presidents' Trophy, the Boston Bruins are trying to get their offense untracked as they prepare to host the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The Bruins amassed an Eastern Conference-best 261 goals last season, but they needed a late tally by Chris Kelly to eke out a 2-1 win over Philadelphia in their season opener before falling at Detroit by an identical score 24 hours later. Boston will be without center David Krejci for a third straight game.
New coach, new season, familiar result for the Capitals. Despite an impressive performance in Barry Trotz's debut behind Washington's bench, the Capitals suffered a 2-1 shootout loss to Montreal on Thursday, conjuring up memories of last season when the team went to overtime an NHL-high 28 times. "We've been in that situation very often last year and that's something we're really going to have to get stronger at, those tight games, those low-scoring games," starting netminder Braden Holtby said.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN Washington, NESN (Boston)
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (0-0-1): Washington lamented its failure to deliver an early knockout punch against the Canadiens after unleashing the first 13 shots of the game and finishing with a 15-2 edge in the opening 20 minute. The one bright spot was the play of rookie Andre Burakovsky, who became the first Capital to score in his NHL debut since superstar captain Alex Ovechkin in 2005. "It was real nice. It was huge," the 19-year-old Burakovsky said. "It's just a great moment but it would be so much better if we would just win this game."
ABOUT THE BRUINS (1-1-0): Boston received a huge scare in Thursday's loss when center Patrice Bergeron, who has a history of concussions, went helmet-first into the boards and went to the locker room to be evaluated before returning to finish the game. “When a guy like him goes down - any time a teammate goes down - you’re nervous,” Bruins forward Brad Marchand said. "And he came back, so we were obviously very relieved, but definitely worried when he went out.” Boston also had reason to be concerned about forward Milan Lucic, who has yet to register a shot on goal in either game.
OVERTIME
1. Bruins G Tuukka Rask has only one win (1-3-3) in seven appearances versus Washington.
2. Capitals D Mike Green (upper body) sat out the opener but accompanied the team on the trip to Boston.
3. The Bruins were an NHL-best 31-7-3 at home last season.