Need to Know: Bruins at Capitals

WASHINGTON - The Bruins are in the nation's capital as they continue their road trip with a tilt against the East Division-leading Washington Capitals on Thursday night at Capital One Arena. Jeremy Swayman will make his second consecutive start between the pipes after picking up his first career win in his NHL debut on Tuesday in Philadelphia.
"I liked everything that I saw," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of the rookie netminder's performance against the Flyers. "But let's get a few more games under his belt. You hate to do that right away, but he's going in tonight."
Here's everything else you need to know ahead of the 7 p.m. puck drop on NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub:

McAvoy Missing

Miller Feeling Good

Kevan Miller returned from a six-week absence on Tuesday night in Philadelphia with no ill effects, playing 22:25 while helping to stabilize Boston's back end, particularly in the third period. Miller said he felt strong coming out of the game and is ready to go for Thursday's meeting with the Capitals.
"I made it through great the other night. Felt good [on Wednesday] and definitely good to go tonight," said Miller, who did not take part in morning skate, adding that he is likely to forego them moving forward. "Try to just save it for a game and make sure everything's good. We'll just do a nice warmup here and I'll do what I can video-wise and be ready to go."
Miller was initially supposed to miss only a limited amount of time as a way to rest his surgically repaired right knee. But the time off and treatment did not pay immediate dividends, leading to an extended period off the ice.
"No real concerns that it wouldn't get there," said Miller. "Everything was going great coming into the season, everything felt fine with the first 15 games under my belt, thought everything felt great. And then things started to slip, and we had those maintenance days where you use that to kind of get back.
"You take one day and it'd kind of pop back and be just fine. Then it started to slip a little bit…probably my own fault a little bit, not raising the red flag a little earlier. It kind of got away from me and, unfortunately, I kind of had an issue and thought it would hopefully bounce back quick.
"It took a little longer than I anticipated and hoped for, but it feels pretty good now, just have to make sure we manage it and manage the load."
Miller said that moving forward he will consult with the medical and coaching staffs regularly as they monitor his usage and map out a plan that could include keeping him out of back-to-back situations.
"I think we have a pretty good plan," said Miller. "I don't know back-to-back-wise how we'll do it, especially initially, just to make sure everything's good. Then going forward it's going to be fluid.
"I'm going to do my best to play my best and be in every game that I can. There will be days that' I'll take and just try to manage that load and then make sure that things are staying in a good spot. We'll just manage it a little more and be careful."

Kuraly Had No Symptoms

Sean Kuraly, who missed six games while in COVID protocol last month, said that he did not experience any symptoms despite multiple positive test results. Kuraly returned on April 3 against Pittsburgh and will be suiting up for his fourth game back on Thursday night.
"I was actually fine which was a positive. I didn't have really any symptoms," said Kuraly. "I guess that's the silver lining through it all. Got through it pretty easily which was nice."

Opposing View

Washington is coming off of a 1-0 loss to the Islanders on Tuesday night. The setback dropped the Caps into a tied with the Islanders for the top spot in the East Division with 54 points apiece.
The Capitals are pace, as always, by Alex Ovechkin, who leads the club with 19 goals in 35 games. Nicklas Backstrom tops the team in scoring with 39 points in 39 games.
Per the caps, Ilya Samsonov will start in goal on Thursday night.
The Bruins are 2-0-2 vs. the Capitals in this season's series so far with a 4-3 OT loss in Washington on Jan. 30, a 5-3 road win on Feb. 1, a 2-1 shootout setback in Boston on March 3 and 5-1 home win on March 5.
"They're a high-octane offense, they've got a lot of skilled guys over there that have been in the league a long time and can score quickly," said Miller. "I think we just need to make sure we get out of our zone cleanly and then put the pressure on them. I expect it to be a good game tonight."

By The Numbers

• David Pastrnak is four goals short of his 200th NHL goal.
• The Bruins visit the Capitals in the fifth of eight games between these teams this season and the third of four at Capital One Arena.
• Brad Marchand leads the Bruins in scoring in the season series against Washington with 4-3-7 totals, followed by David Pastrnak (3-2-5), Patrice Bergeron and Charlie McAvoy (1-4-5 each). Nicklas Backstrom leads Washington with 1-4-5 totals.
• The Bruins and Capitals are meeting for the 168th time in their histories. The Bruins are 4-1-3 in their last eight games vs. Washington following an 0-11-3 stretch in their previous 14 games from Oct. 11, 2014 to Jan. 10, 2019.

Thursday's Projected Lineup

FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - Charlie Coyle - Karson Kuhlman
Anton Blidh/Trent Frederic - Sean Kuraly - Chris Wagner
DEFENESMEN
Matt Grzelcyk - Kevan Miller
Jeremy Lauzon - Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril - Steven Kampfer
GOALIES
Jeremy Swayman
Daniel Vladar