The Boston Bruins will take on one of their biggest adversaries in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The No. 3 B's will take on former Boston blueliner Zdeno Chara and the No. 2 Washington Capitals in the first round, which begins Saturday at 7:15 p.m. ET at Capital One Arena. And if their regular-season matchups are any indicator, this series should be a doozy.
Bruins forward Brad Marchand already is amped up for the upcoming series despite having to play Washington on Tuesday in the final game of Boston's regular season schedule. And he thinks this has been in the making for quite some time, especially with Chara still in his first year with the Caps.
"I think at the start of the year you probably could have guessed this was going to play out this way," Marchand told reporters during his postgame media availability after Monday's win over the New York Islanders. "Obviously, it adds another storyline to the game and to the series. They're obviously a very dominant team. Big. Physical. And that's obviously where they gain a lot of emotion and energy from that. They have a lot of guys that play that way. They're built to be heavy and to be a playoff team. ... It's going to be a tough series. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
"We're excited for the challenge," he added. "This is what we play all year for. Obviously, this has been a unique season and we've been very fortunate to be able to play. So we're excited about the opportunity. It's great that playoffs is finally here. The season kind of drags on at the end because you want the playoffs to be here so bad. It's why you play hockey, for that chance to win a cup. And, again, we're excited for that opportunity."
Sounds like this will be a must-watch series.
