The B’s won their season opener Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers, then lost to the Detroit Red Wings the next night in a lackluster performance highlighted by poor special teams play.
Boston has lost to Washington in regulation just once since the start of the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season, and the B’s have a 3-1-2 overall record against the Capitals in that span.
The Capitals have a few new faces after a busy offseason. They made a splash in the free-agent market by signing Pittsburgh Penguins defensemen Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik to long-term contracts worth over $5 million per season. Washington also hired Barry Trotz as its new head coach after firing Adam Oates following two subpar seasons.
Trotz came to the Capitals after spending the last 15 seasons with the Nashville Predators, who he helped lead to the playoffs seven times since the start of the 2003-04 campaign.
Here are the expected lines and pairings for both teams. Bruins pre-game coverage begins at 6 p.m. on NESN, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.
BOSTON (1-1-0)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly–Carl Soderberg–Loui Eriksson
Milan Lucic–Ryan Spooner–Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille–Craig Cunningham–Bobby Robins
Zdeno Chara–Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg–Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug–Kevan Miller
Extra: Matt Bartkowski
Tuukka Rask, Niklas Svedberg
WASHINGTON (0-0-1)
Alexander Ovechkin–Nicklas Backstrom–Eric Fehr
Marcus Johansson–Andre Burakovsky–Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera–Brooks Laich–Joel Ward
Liam O’Brien–Evgeny Kuznetsov–Chris Brown
Brooks Orpik–John Carlson
Karl Alzner–Matt Niskanen
Mike Green–Nate Schmidt
Braden Holtby
