The only two teams without a win in the Eastern Conference round-robin slate will meet Sunday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto with seeding on the line.
The Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals are set to face off, with both having lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers in their first two games. Both teams led their respective divisions at the time of the pause — with Boston the best team in the league — but each have stumbled out of the gate in round-robin play. Thus, the winner of their matchup will get the third seed in the East and will play the New York Islanders in the first round. The loser will be the fourth seed and will face the Carolina Hurricanes.
Ondrej Kase will make his return Sunday after what’s been a bumpy few weeks for him. Kase will be on the second line right wing opposite Jake DeBrusk with David Krejci between them, a unit the team envisioned panning out when they traded for Kase back in February.
Nick Ritchie, Charlie Coyle and Anders Bjork will form the third line, while Boston’s top and fourth line featuring the usual six forwards.
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Matt Grzelcyk will get a “maintenance game,” in large part for blueliner Connor Clifton to see some game action. Clifton will skate on the right side of the third pairing next to Jeremy Lauzon.
Tuukka Rask will be in net for Boston. He’s expected to play the entire game, but Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy did not rule out Jaroslav Halak possibly seeing some time. Braden Holtby likely will be in net for Washington.
BOSTON BRUINS (0-2-0)
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–David Krejci–Ondrej Kase
Nick Ritchie–Charlie Coyle–Anders Bjork
Joakim Nordstrom–Sean Kuraly–Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara–Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug–Brandon Carlo
Jeremy Lauzon–Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
WASHINGTON CAPITALS (0-1-1)
Alex Ovechkin–Evgeny Kuznetsov–Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana–Nicklas Backstrom–T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin–Travis Boyd–Ilya Kovalchuk
Richard Panik–Nic Dowd–Garnet Hathaway
Brenden Dillon–Dmitry Orlov
Michal Kempny–Radko Gudas
Jonas Siegenthaler–Nick Jensen
Braden Holtby
