SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 5/15

Loving Cup - Following a 56-game regular season in which they faced one another eight times, the Caps and the Boston Bruins are set to go at it for as many as seven more games in a first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series. Although the two teams met for a single game in the postseason less than a year ago in the round robin round of the 2020 playoffs, they'll be hooking up in a best-of-seven set for the fourth time in Stanley Cup play.

Back in 1990, the Bruins swept the Caps in the Wales Conference Final, Washington's first-ever trip to the third round of the playoffs. Boston then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in five games in the Stanley Cup Final series.
Eight years later, the Caps ousted the Bruins in a six-game opening round set en route to Washington's first-ever trip to the Cup Final. Detroit swept the Caps in that 1998 Stanley Cup Final series.
Most recently, Washington won a thriller of a best-of-seven set from the Bruins in the first round of the 2012 playoffs. For the first time in Stanley Cup Playoff history, all seven games were decided by a single goal, with four of them requiring overtime. The first two and last two games went to overtime, and Washington won Game 7 in Boston, ousting the defending Cup champs on Joel Ward's overtime game-winner.
This year's series with the Bruins marks the first time that the Caps will face a playoff opponent they faced eight times in the regular season.
"I think any of these teams in our division, even prior to this year we have some good knowledge on and have played each other enough over the years," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "And a lot of their players have been there for five, six or seven plus years as well.
"I think it will be interesting, the chess match within a playoff series after eight games in the regular season. But that's just where we're at, and we're excited for it to be playoffs."
What Does It Take? - The Caps were four points better than Boston over the length of the regular season, and the two teams split their eight meetings, though the Caps needed more than 60 minutes for two of their four victories over the Bruins.
With each of the top four teams in the East so evenly matched, the two divisional rounds should provide plenty of compelling hockey before we reach the third round. But what will it take for the Caps and the Bruins to win this series?
"I think it's just about getting to our game, and what allows us to have success," says Boston blueliner Charlie McAvoy. "When we're at our best, we're skating, we're defending well - I feel like it really always starts there for us - taking care of our end and then getting on the offensive side. But if we can establish our game quick it will work to our favor. All we're really concerned about is us in here and what we need to do to prepare."
Beset by injuries for much of the regular season, the Bruins are nearly at peak health as the playoffs get underway.
"You want to be playing well, making minimal adjustments and not plugging a lot of leaks," says Boston coach Bruce Cassidy. "You're hoping not to do that in your game and positionally because of injuries and what not. I think injury-wise, we're pretty solid. [Charlie] Coyle missed some time but looked good [Thursday], so he should be ready to go. We obviously lost a couple of guys along the way that trickled into the lineup late here, so you're losing a bit of depth. But in terms of our starting 20, we're solid."
Boston also got a big boost from the additions of forwards Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar and defenseman Mike Reilly at the trade deadline. After acquiring that trio of players in two separate trades on April 11, the Bruins finished with a flourish, going 12-4-1 in their last 17 games.
"Obviously I liked the way we finished the season," says Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron. "We kept building from one week to the next. I think we have that depth and we have that togetherness that you need when adversity and playoff time comes around. You know it's not going to be perfect, but then you rely on each other to take care of that, do the right things, stay with it and fight through that adversity and learn and come out on top."
"As for our game, there are different ways to look at it," says Cassidy. "We played some teams down the stretch that were a little more loose, in terms of what they were playing for. But I think early on when our team came together after the deadline, we played the Islanders a couple of times, we played Washington and we played well. So we use those as measuring sticks as well. We played the Islanders recently [this past Monday] for third place and played well."
Washington also finished on a nice roll, winning 11 of 16 (11-4-1) to close out the campaign and doing so without some of its key performers in the lineup on some of those nights.
"I think we've really got to be ready right from the first game," says Caps center Lars Eller. "Everybody's got to be at their best, everybody's got to bring something to the team's success. We need contributions from every single player in some form.
"You can have games when you're not at your best but the games that you're playing well, you need to win those games because you're not going to play well every game. But the games where you are playing well and you have the win within your grasp, those are the ones you have to have. You have to be able to close those out. We need our best players to be our best players and we need key saves at key times and discipline and everything that goes with that."
For most of this season, discipline was not an issue for Washington. Over its final 40 games of the season, the Caps faced four or fewer opposition power play opportunities every night, nearly double the longest previous best franchise streak (22 games in 2014) in that regard.
"For us, I think it's just our foundations that we've improved on throughout the year," says Carlson. "I think it starts in the [defensive] zone. Over the last month or two, we have really cleaned that area up and it has helped us break out pucks cleaner and faster and better. And then from there, just taking care of the puck like we have. That's a recipe for success on any team, but certainly we put a lot of focus on that and have improved a lot in that regard and it has changed the way we play."
On the season, the Caps allowed an average of 2.88 goals per game to rank 17th in the NHL in that department. But over their last 20 games, the Caps allowed 2.55 goals per game, ranking ninth in the League over that span while fashioning a 13-6-1 record. In five of their 13 victories over that span, the Caps scored two or fewer goals.
Washington forged a League-best 8-10-1 record (.447 points percentage) in games in which it scored two or fewer goals this season.
"We feel good about our game," says Caps defenseman Brenden Dillon. "We feel good about where our systems are at and our execution of those. And that's a big thing at this time of year, is what team is going to play to their identity - to their system - the best and most complete for 60 minutes or longer.
"As we've seen in the last few games, the more time you can spend in the [offensive] zone, the less time you're going to have to defend, especially against those high-end guys on the Bergeron line and the Krejci line. Those guys aren't usually going to score from their own zone, and it's hard to keep them down there, but it's what we're going to have to do."
While the Caps' regular season record and accomplishments won't mean anything once the puck drops for Game 1 tonight, the journey they took to get here over the last four months will. The Caps and Bruins each overcame a fair amount of adversity to reach the playoffs, and each will now seek to use that experience gained to overcome the next obstacle in their way.
"We've missed big pieces of our team at different points all year, including one of our goalies," says Caps center Nic Dowd. It at least gives me the realization that regardless of who is playing at any given time, we have an opportunity to win the hockey games and we don't have any excuse [not] to do it.
"Sometimes it can cause you a little bit of a shudder when you see a couple of your big guys go down, but we've been doing it all year. We've had guys step in, and I think the great part about it is that we don't have a team where certain guys are locked into different roles all year. Say something does happen in the playoffs, and a guy has got to elevate his game. But maybe he doesn't know how yet, because he hasn't ever done it. If you want to ask Nic Dowd from four years ago, 'Hey, you're going to play 15 minutes, and you're going to play against the top guys,' back when I was only playing like six to nine [minutes], that's a big difference.
"What's been great is that all four of our lines have played against top players all year. That's going to happen in the playoffs on icings, that's going to happen on the penalty kill, that's going to happen at 6-on-5 - guys are going to get caught out there on long shifts. But we've all done it, so we all understand how to do it.
"I think that just adds a confidence level to everyone's game, and that goes for guys sitting on the bench and [Laviolette]. He doesn't have to look on out on the ice and go - and I know, I've played for coaches that look out on the ice and you can tell they're like - ['Oh, (expletive), we have the wrong line out there.' Players feel that, and that pisses players off. It's not good for the team. But with Lavi, we all play the same roles. We've all played 6-on-5, some guys play on the power play, we've all played on the penalty kill, we've all played against top players. We have confidence and he has confidence in us. Everyone can do it."
In The Nets - Laviolette has opted to keep the identity of his starting goaltender - as well as any firm information regarding injuries - close to the vest at this time of year. But reading the morning skate tea leaves, it certainly looks as though Vitek Vanecek will make his Stanley Cup Playoff debut for the Capitals on this fine Saturday night in Washington.
The 25-year-old Vanecek went from third to first on Washington's goaltending depth chart in a matter of weeks when veteran free agent signee Henrik Lundqvist stepped away from hockey to undergo heart surgery in December and sophomore Ilya Samsonov landed on the Covid-19 protocol list in January.
Vanecek was a workhorse and somewhat of a savior for the Caps during the regular season, starting 13 games in a row at one point, and 17 of the team's first 20 games. He gave Washington a chance to win every night, and finished the season with 21 victories (21-10-4) in 37 appearances, the second most ever by a rookie Caps goalie.
Lifetime against the Bruins, Vanecek is 4-3-0 with a 2.86 GAA and a .904 save pct.
Veteran former Vezina Trophy winner Tuukka Rask will be in net for Boston. Rask's regular season career numbers against Washington are underwhelming, but he is a proven playoff performer who owns a 51-42 career playoff record in 93 appearances, with seven shutouts, a 2.20 GAA and a .926 save pct.
All Lined Up -Here is how we believe the Caps and the Bruins might look on Saturday night for the opener of their first-round playoff series:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 39-Mantha
73-Sheary, 20-Eller, 17-Raffl
10-Sprong, 77-Oshie, 43-Wilson
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
4-Dillon, 2-Schultz
33-Chara, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
41-Vanecek
31-Anderson
Out
6-Kempny (lower body)
92-Kuznetsov (COVID-19 protocol)
Extras
1-Copley (G)
16-Maillet (F)
23-Sgarbossa (F)
28-Carr (F)
30-Samsonov (G)
36-Ladue (D)
40-Pilon (F)
42-Fehervary (D)
57-van Riemsdyk (D)
BOSTON
Forwards
63-Marchand, 37-Bergeron, 88-Pastrnak
71-Hall, 46-Krejci, 12-Smith
21-Ritchie, 52-Kuraly, 13-Coyle
74-Debrusk, 20-Lazar, 14-Wagner
Defensemen
48-Grzelcyk, 73-McAvoy
6-Reilly, 25-Carlo
55-Lauzon, 86-Miller
Goaltenders
40-Rask
1-Swayman
Out
28-Kase (upper body)
67-Zboril (upper body)
Extras
11-Frederic (F)
18-McKegg (F)
23-Studnicka (F)
41-Halak (G)
58-Vaakanainen (D)
62-Steen (F)
75-Clifton (D)
80-Vladar (G)
81-Blidh (F)
83-Kuhlman (F)
84-Tinordi (D)