"They do a really good job of having a third man high in the offensive zone," says Caps coach Todd Reirden of the Bruins. "On their forecheck and even through really strong offensive zone play, they always have a really high F3, so they're really not giving up a lot of odd-man rushes.
"Someone like us that generates a lot off the rush, it's going to force us to make sure we put pucks behind their defense and play in the offensive zone, maybe more than look to create as much as we have against other teams off of just plain line rushes. So they're very structured and one of the top teams for sure in the east, so it will be a good challenge tonight."
In The Nets -Since Braden Holtby made it to the NHL for keeps in 2012-13, he is the league's leader in wins (227) and games started (363). Holtby is tied for the lead in games played (369) with Boston's Tuukka Rask over that span.
Holtby played in 73 games (72 starts) in 2014-15, he played in and started 66 games in '15-16 and 63 games in '16-17, and then had 54 starting assignments and games last season. In the first half of 2018-19, he made 29 appearances (28 starts), which puts him on a pace similar to that of last season's.
Reirden has noted a number of times that he believes in keeping Holtby's workload more manageable than it was from '14-15 through '16-17, and the emergence of Copley has enabled the Caps to avoid overworking Holtby. But Holtby also thrives on work and has derived rhythm in the past from playing every other day and falling into a groove. We wondered how he has adjusted to the diminished workload from seasons past.
"I feel pretty good," says Holtby. "There hasn't been too many long breaks between games, which has been nice. And we are winning games with Caps in there, and that's a big positive and a big reason where we are in the standings.
"It's a good problem to have. You want to keep him going, because it makes it easier on him and all of us to get more familiar, especially because he is still fresh in his career, to keep getting used to playing with both of us. That should create even more success, especially when the games start getting harder down the stretch."
Holtby made his NHL debut against the Bruins on Nov. 5, 2010, picking up a victory in relief of Michal Neuvirth. Since then, he has made quite the habit of beating the B's. Lifetime against Boston, he is 15-2-0 with four shutouts, a 1.84 GAA and a .943 save pct.
Washington has had its way with Rask over the years; he is just 1-11-5 over the course of his career against the Capitals. So although Rask is coming off a shutout performance against Minnesota on Tuesday, the Bruins will go with former Caps goalie Jaroslav Halak in net against Washington. Halak has won four of his last five starts and he has 13 wins on the season to 12 for Rask.
Lifetime against the Caps, Halak is 9-9-0 with an shutout, a 2.79 GAA and a .902 save pct.
