The Bruins will face the Bruins for the third time in 17 days after playing them two additional times in the preseason. The Bruins just hope this meeting goes as well as the first two regular-season encounters, as Boston swept a home-and-home series with the Caps last month.
If the Bruins can beat Washington again on Friday, it will give them 16 points and match the club's best start through 10 games in franchise history. The Bruins have earned 16 points through 10 games four times before, the most recent being a 7-1-2 start in 1978-79 when Don Cherry was still behind the Bruins' bench.
Boston Bruins (7-2-0, 14 points) at Washington Capitals (8-4-0, 16 points)
Nov. 5, 7 p.m. (NESN)
Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
This is already the third meeting of the season between the Bruins and Capitals, with Boston sweeping a home-and-home series last month with a 3-1 win at Washington and a 4-1 win at the Garden. Boston was just 1-2-1 against Washington last year, but the Bruins still hold a 71-36-21-5 edge in the all-time series, including a 32-19-12-3 mark in Washington.
Tim Thomas became the first Bruin goalie ever to start a season 7-0-0 after beating Buffalo 5-2 on Wednesday. That was the first time he has allowed more than one goal this season, but he still leads the NHL with a 0.72 GAA, .977 save percentage and three shutouts. He stopped 73 of 75 shots in a pair of wins over Washington last month. Tuukka Rask has struggled a bit in limited action at 0-2-0, with a 3.54 GAA and .894 save percentage, but with the Bruins playing games on back-to-back nights, he is likely to get back into action either in this game or Saturday night at home against St. Louis.
For the Capitals, Michal Neuvirth has been the workhorse with Semyon Varlamov battling a groin injury. Neuvirth was the NHL Rookie of the Month for October and has an 8-3-0 record with a 2.31 GAA and a .920 save percentage, but was pulled after allowing two goals on seven shots against the Bruins on Oct. 19. Braden Holtby was recalled from Hershey (AHL) to back up Neuvirth on Oct. 25, but has yet to see any game action with the big club.
Bruins
Capitals
Bruins
Capitals
Forward Mike Knuble had a successful run with the Bruins from 2000-04, seeing time on the top line with Joe Thornton and Glen Murray. Hendricks never made it up to Boston, but did play the 2007-08 season in Providence before being traded to Colorado for Boychuk. Defenseman Poti hails from Worcester, Mass., and played at Boston University, while fellow blueliner John Carlson was born in Natick, Mass.
The Capitals had just 20 fighting majors all of last year but already have nine in 12 games this season, including two against the Bruins in their first matchup. Hendricks leads the Caps with three fighting majors, while heavyweight D.J. King has two and Matt Bradley, Mike Green, Jason Chimera and John Erskine each have one. Hendricks has taken on Boston's Campbell in both the preseason and regular season, while Erskine fought Lucic in the first game in Washington, as Lucic earned the Gordie Howe Hat Trick that night. King also took on Shawn Thornton in the preseason. The Bruins are still averaging a fight a game with nine fighting majors through nine games. Campbell, Lucic and Mark Stuart each have two fighting majors, while Thornton, Horton and Dennis Seidenberg each have one.
The Bruins will look to push their winning streak to four games and stay perfect on the road, where they are 5-0-0 so far this season. Washington is no pushover at home, where the reigning Presidents' Trophy winners were an NHL-best 30-5-3 last season and are 5-1-0 this year, though that one loss is to the Bruins. The Bruins haven't posted three wins in regulation in the same season against Washington since 1998-99, and the Capitals haven't suffered three regulation losses in one season to any non-division opponent since Bruce Boudreau took over as head coach in 2007.
The Bruins have been making history throughout their stellar start to the season, and one more win on Friday would add a few more footnotes to that memorable start, both to Boston's enjoyment and at Washington's expense.