Capitals at Bruins preview

CAPITALS (26-6-5) at BRUINS (21-7-9)
7 p.m. ET; SN, NESN, NBCSWA, NHL.TV

The Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals are 16-1-0 in their past 17 games against the Atlantic Division-leading Bruins, outscoring them 57-26, and have won eight straight at Boston.
Washington has won two straight overall and is 10-2-0 in its past 12.
Boston will play without captain Zdeno Chara because of a scheduled follow-up procedure for a broken jaw sustained during the Stanley Cup Final. The 42-year-old defenseman is expected to return when the Bruins play at the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, following the three-day NHL Christmas break.
The Bruins are winless in three straight (0-0-3) and are 1-4-4 in their past nine games following an eight-game winning streak.

Players to watch

Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past nine games and 42 points (eight goals, 34 assists) in 39 games against Boston.
Bruins forward David Pastrnak has five points (two goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak and leads the NHL with 28 goals.

They said it

"We've got to make sure we don't feed their transition, they're so good, especially awareness of who you're on the ice with. Whether it's guys like [Torey] Krug or [Charlie] McAvoy joining from the back end, or their obviously extremely talented top line. … It's up to everyone on our team to understand what we've got to do to shut down a dangerous Boston team." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden
"It's huge. Obviously we don't like the way we've been playing. … For us to come out on top it's obviously not going to be easy and there's lots of things that have to go right. So we understand that if we can pull off the win it'll be good to go into the holidays feeling good about ourselves, and that's kind of what we're looking to do." -- Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk
Capitals projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin -- Lars Eller -- Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen
Jonas Siegenthaler -- Radko Gudas
Braden Holtby
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched: Travis Boyd
Injured: None

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Danton Heinen
Sean Kuraly -- Charlie Coyle -- Anders Bjork
Joakim Nordstrom -- Par Lindholm -- Brett Ritchie
John Moore -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Scratched: Chris Wagner, David Backes
Injured: Karson Kuhlman (fractured tibia), Kevan Miller (knee), Zdeno Chara (jaw procedure)

Status report

The Capitals will dress the same 18 skaters from their 3-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. … Moore replaces Chara, and Nordstrom replaces Wagner, who will be a healthy scratch.

Stat pack

Ovechkin needs one power-play goal to pass Teemu Selanne (255) for third place on the NHL all-time list and has 49 points (24 goals, 25 assists) in 50 games against Boston. … Heinen will play his 200th League game. … Krug has six points (one goal, five assists) in a four-game point streak.