BOSTON – The Bruins are finally back on home ice after their five-game, 12-day road trip to battle the East-leading Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin on Tuesday night at TD Garden. Boston has dropped eight straight games.
“It’s about getting our mindset focused to win a hockey game, No. 1, as a group, and how we go about doing it,” said interim head coach Joe Sacco. “But also, the part about the pride and the privilege. I’ve talked about those two things. I think that’s huge for our guys.
“There’s a lot of opportunity here for some of our players that have come up now, players from different teams. There’s the opportunity factor, but then there’s the pride. The pride of being a Boston Bruin. The pride of being a good teammate, trying to win hockey games.
“And then the privilege to play in this league. You can’t take it for granted. You just can’t. You never know in this league how things work out. Those two things are real important for our guys.
“We want to play a good hockey game. I thought that in Detroit we played a pretty good hockey game for the most part and that’s what we want to see. We’re looking for effort, we’re looking for guys to play with pride and to understand the privilege that it is to play in this league.”
Ovechkin enters the matchup with 890 career goals, four shy of tying – and five shy of breaking – Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record. For the season, the 39-year-old ranks sixth in the league with 37 goals.
“That’s the one thing that jumps out to me is just his consistency,” said Sacco. “And the ability to still be able to produce after all these years, knowing that you put a game plan in place to try to stop that. It says a lot about the individual.
“It’s an incredible milestone that he’s trying to get to here.”
David Pastrnak, who leads Boston with 35 goals this season, shared the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer (48) with Ovechkin in 2019-20.
“It’s very, very impressive, obviously,” said Pastrnak. “We all know how hard it is to score in this league and he’s been doing it for over two decades. The way he found a way every year, he scores different goals.
“You see way less one-timer goals from him, guys taking him away, and he still finds a way. It’s impressive and motivational to see him keep scoring all those goals. Definitely a special goal scorer.”
Washington, meanwhile, has gone from sneaking into the postseason as the East’s bottom seed a year ago to being the conference titan. The Caps are 47-17-9 with 103 points so far this season.
“We know the opponent we’re facing here tonight,” said Sacco. “They’re one of the top teams in the league. We’re gonna have to be really solid in our game all around here tonight. It’s a big, strong team that plays a heavy game. We have to be willing to match it.
“With Ovi and the race that he’s in…it grabs everybody’s attention, no question.”
