Downtown, Saturday – Washington opens a critical four-game homestand Saturday afternoon against the Boston Bruins, the second four-point contest the Caps have played against the Bruins in a week; the two teams tangled in Boston last Saturday afternoon.
Boston has prevailed in each of the first two meetings between the two teams this season, winning both games by identical 3-1 scores, here in Washington on Oct. 8 in the Caps’ season opener and last Saturday afternoon in Beantown.
The Caps enter today’s game in the unenviable position of being in 12th place in the Eastern Conference standings – five points south of the cutline – despite being fourth in the Conference in regulation wins with 28.
Washington desperately needs to win today’s game in regulation to keep its slim playoff hopes viable, and it will almost certainly need to score more than it has in its first two meetings with the Bruins to achieve that imperative.
According to moneypuck.com, the Caps come into today’s contest with a 12.9 percent chance of making the playoffs with 15 games remaining.
“We’re going to have to do a better job on [Boston goaltender Jeremy] Swayman, that’s number one,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We’re going to need to find a way to get one or two dirty goals today – something around the net, some rebounds, something that he doesn’t see. Because as we’ve seen in the first couple of games, if he sees it – whether it’s a breakaway or a 2-on-1 – if he sees it, he’s got a good chance of making that save, so we’ve got to make it difficult on him.
“The other thing that I think – and this is just how they play – is you have to stay patient, and you have to stay with it, because [Boston coach] Marco [Sturm] since he came in, they pack it in. They sit back with five guys below the red line from their side on and say, ‘You can do whatever you want back there, but we're going to have five people below our red line. You're going to have to work your way through it.’
“So, you have to stay real disciplined with your plan and what you do to get through that, and where you put pucks and how you go work to get it back. Because if you get sloppy there, careless, or you try to force an issue, that's where you get into trouble. They defend real well. It's usually a low-event game. So again, there's another point of if you're not getting opportunities to score, if you're not getting shots, you can't get frustrated. You can't get frustrated because that's what they've done a good job of all year, is they just force other teams to crack. They force other teams to go, ‘I want to try and make something happen. I'm sick of having to go through these five guys. There's too many people back. Let me see if I can make a play happen.’
“And that's why, I think one of the big reasons why they've had so much success this year is because they just stay so disciplined inside their system of having people back and not giving you a numerical advantage.”
Last weekend in Boston the Caps were in a 1-1 game in the third period with Boston, but a mistake resulted in a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway goal, and Washington was unable to muster an equalizer thereafter.
The Caps also didn’t help their cause by getting whistled for six minor penalties in the game’s first 40 minutes last weekend in Boston. All the resulting special teams play taxes those units and disrupts Washington’s bread and butter, its 5-on-5 play. The Caps are plus-28 at 5-on-5 through the season’s first 67 games, and that’s fourth-best in the NHL and second in the Eastern Conference.
“We want to keep this game at 5-on-5 as much as we possibly can, so that was not a recipe for success in their building on multiple fronts, not just because of the power play/penalty kills and their power play being very effective this year. It’s also just for deployment too; guys get lost in the shuffle and you’re using the game power play and penalty kill guys constantly and wearing them out early in the hockey game.
“As much as we can play this at 5-on-5, that’s ideal and that’s what we’ll make sure we’re focused on.”
True Pro – Caps forward Aliaksei Protas played in his 300th NHL game early last month. Following a breakout season in which he totaled 30 goals and 66 points in 2024-25, Protas has – like most of his teammates – seen his production dip this season. But recently, he has been among the hottest of Washington’s scoring hands.
The Capitals own a modest 9-6-1 record in their last 16 games, but it’s the best stretch they’ve managed to cobble together across the last three months. During that 16-game stretch, Jakob Chychrun (five goals, 10 assists, 15 points) is the team’s leading scorer and Protas (five goals, eight assists, 13 points) is second.
The duo hooked up on the game-winning goal late in the third period to give Washington its 2-1 victory over the Sabres in Buffalo on Thursday. Protas won a multi-player puck battle near the Buffalo net, then suddenly whirled and fired a perfect feed to the front for Chychrun, whose one-timer won it for Washington, snapping a 1-1 deadlock with 93 seconds remaining in regulation.
“I’ve liked a lot of parts of his game, and a lot of the things that we’ve come to be accustomed to on Pro of winning pucks, and his small area game,” said Carbery of Protas earlier in the week. “I’ll give you a couple examples. The power play, right? He doesn't play any power play; he gets an opportunity because of the struggles in the third period [Monday against Calgary].
“What does he do? Off a power play face-off loss, he shoots through and creates a goal. If he doesn't go in there and create a turnover, they clear that puck 200 feet, and we probably don't score that power-play goal. He uses his feet, he wins a puck, and then what does he do? He gets a puck off the wall to the middle to [Rasmus] Sandin, which creates that goal.
“So his puck recoveries, his ability to forecheck – not only in those situations, but to keep a play alive off of the yellow – and then the other thing that I'll point out is he's done an excellent job, as good as anybody, probably the best job that we've had at the net front. At the net front, he creates another goal [against Calgary] because he's willing to go to the net and stand there, right on top of the crease.
“And so whether he scores or gets an assist, it doesn't really matter. He knows that's such an important part of his game. And us scoring goals is someone standing there, and when it's someone of his size, it makes it really difficult on goaltenders to track rebounds, pucks. So, he's been doing a real good job of that.”
Protas typically finds a way to deflect praise to his teammates when things are going his way, and this instance is no exception.
“I think just being on the same page and knowing what to expect from my teammates; we’re all together on the same page,” says Protas of his recent scoring spree. “We know what to do in the [offensive] zone especially; the goals are hard [to score]. It starts with the teammates; I think we’ve just been feeling good the last couple of weeks, but with the stretch ahead, we’ve got to be ready for it.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson starts this afternoon against the Bruins after Charlie Lindgren’s stellar 29-save effort helped the Caps get out of Buffalo with a pair of points on Thursday night. With every start – today is his 46th of the season – Thompson adds to a single-season career best. And today, with his 46th appearance of the season – he matches a career high in that department. Thompson appeared in 46 games for Vegas in 2023-24, his final season with the Golden Knights.
Lifetime against Boston, Thompson is 3-3-0 with a 2.00 GAA and a .933 save pct. in six appearances, all of them starts.
For Boston, we’re expecting Jeremy Swayman to get today’s starting assignment. Swayman will be seeking his 26th victory of the season, which would mark a single-season career high for him.
Swayman has made most of his hay at home this season, where he is 15-5-1 with a shutout, a 2.26 GAA and a .917 save pct. On the road this season, he is 9-9-2 with a 3.40 GAA and an .893 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Swayman is 5-6-0 in a dozen appearances – 11 starts – with a 1.81 GAA and a .932 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Bruins might look on Saturday afternoon in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 34-Sourdif, 72-Beauvillier
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 53-Frank
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 27-Liljegren
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
63-Miroshnichenko
64-Kampf
Injured/Out
None
BOSTON
Forwards
92-Khusnutdinov, 28-E. Lindholm, 88-Pastrnak
11-Mittelstadt, 18-Zacha, 71-Arvidsson
81-Eyssimont, 93-Minten, 39-Geekie
84-Jeannot, 52-Kuraly, 47-Kastelic
Defensemen
45-Aspirot, 73-McAvoy
27-H. Lindholm, 6-Lohrei
91-Zadorov, 26-Peeke
Goalies
1-Swayman
70-Korpisalo
Healthy Extras
20-Jokiharju
21-Steeves
43-Harris
Injured/Out
None
