Bruins at Capitals preview

BRUINS (20-10-5) at CAPITALS (22-13-3)
7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN360, SNE, SNW, SNP, TVA Sports, NESN, NHL.TV

The Bruins have won a season-high five consecutive games, including a 5-1 home victory against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday, and are 8-1-1 in their past 10. But they've lost 11 straight to the Capitals (0-9-2), including two in Boston this season. Their last win was a 4-2 victory in Washington on March 29, 2014.
The Capitals have lost three straight (0-1-2) after a 1-0 shootout loss at the New York Rangers on Wednesday. They've been shut out the past two games and haven't scored in 145:01, but have won six in a row at home, where they are 13-2-0 in their past 15 games.

Players to watch

Bruins forward Danton Heinen has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his past seven games.
Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby is 13-2-0 with a 1.90 goals-against average, .942 save percentage and three shutouts in 15 games against Boston.

They said it

"For whatever reason, there's a number of them, but the biggest one is we end up chasing the game against them a lot. So that's going to be our focus. Hopefully we get off to a better start. … They've been able to make more plays than us at the appropriate times and that's the second part of the focus." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"We've just got to manage ourselves a little bit better. There's too many pockets of the game we aren't playing good enough. You can't take it to them all 60 minutes. It's a give-and-take thing. But we need to control more of the game I think." -- Capitals defenseman John Carlson

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Danton Heinen -- Riley Nash -- David Backes
Jake DeBrusk -- Ryan Spooner -- Anders Bjork
Tim Schaller -- Sean Kuraly -- Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Kevan Miller
Anton Khudobin
Tuukka Rask
Scratched:Paul Postma, Frank Vatrano, Adam McQuaid
Injured:David Krejci (upper body), Peter Cehlarik (lower body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky -- Lars Eller -- Brett Connolly
Devante Smith-Pelly -- Jay Beagle -- Alex Chiasson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik -- John Carlson
Christian Djoos -- Madison Bowey
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Chandler Stephenson, Taylor Chorney
Injured:None

Status report

Krejci and Cehlarik skated with Bruins extras. Krejci needs to participate in a full practice before returning and hasn't had the chance to do that following the Christmas break. … The Capitals assigned forward Nathan Walker to Hershey of the American Hockey League after reclaiming him off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 20. … Stephenson (flu) skated and said he is available after not playing Wednesday. … Capitals coach Barry Trotz needs one win to tie Lindy Ruff for fifth in NHL history with 736.

Stat pack

Marchand is one assist from 200 in his NHL career. … The Capitals are 1-for-22 on the power play in their past nine games, including 0-for-11 in their past five.