What’s at stake for Bruins in Tuesday’s season finale

For better or worse, the Bruins have indeed made Game 82 mean something.

Even after Monday came with some clarity for Jim Montgomery's club.

In Washington with a chance to claim their second straight Atlantic title, the Bruins were stymied by a stiff, desperate Capitals club that limited them to just 16 shots by the night's end. It was Boston's lowest shot output in over 11 years. Elsewhere in the league, the Rangers handled their business against the Senators, wiping out Boston's potential path to the top seed in the Eastern Conference even before the Black and Gold's loss to the Capitals went final.

But the Bruins do remain firmly in control of their own destiny when it comes to Atlantic Division seeding, and the club is guaranteed to know their first-round dance partner when Tuesday's head-to-head with the Senators goes final.

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A Boston win of any sort and the B's will lock themselves into the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Division. That's because a win would give the Bruins 111 points on the year, and thus make it impossible for the second-place Panthers (108 points) to catch them. Montgomery's club finishing in first place in the Atlantic would also lock the club into a first-round showdown with the Lightning, who are firmly in the first wild card in the Eastern Conference and cannot catch third-place Toronto.

The Bruins went 1-2-1 against the Lightning this season, but managed to break even with Tampa on the scoring front, with each team scoring 14 goals against the other.

But should the Bruins fall flat against the Senators, the door would be open for the Panthers to jump the Bruins for first place just before the horn sounds on the regular season, and Florida coach Paul Maurice outright admitted to reporters that his Tuesday night lineup against the Leafs would depend on what happened in the Boston-Washington game on Monday. And though that could mean that his team will rest its roster and accept a first-round date with the Maple Leafs, it's also possible that he's going to push his team to go for the division crown and lock up home ice through the first two rounds (at least) of the playoffs.

The formula for the Panthers to jump the Bruins in the standings is an equally simple one, too. A Bruins loss of any sort (regulation, overtime, or shootout) coupled with a Panthers win would give Florida the crown. In fact, if the Panthers manage to get a single point while the Bruins get none, a tie at 109 points apiece would go to Florida.

That's because Florida holds the tiebreaker over the Bruins in the first tiebreaking procedure (regulation wins), with 41 regulation wins for the Cats compared to Boston's 36 regulation wins.

The Bruins falling out of first place and into second in the division would lock the Bruins into a first-round showdown with the Maple Leafs. The Bruins went 4-0-0 against the Leafs this season, but there's also no denying the firepower Toronto possesses, with the Leafs ranking third in goals for (292) this season, and first in five-on-five goals for (197).

From a Boston scope, it'll be interesting to see just how the Bruins handle Game 82. Namely whether or not the club decides to give some of their top talents a night off and trust that their secondary options can lead the charge against a straight-up bad Ottawa club, or if the Bruins decide that they don't want to take any chances and put themselves in the best spot to win the division.

Monday night's showdown at Capital One Arena in Washington meant a whole lot more to the Capitals than it did the Bruins.

Boston came into play with a chance to secure their second straight Atlantic Division title, sure, but the Capitals? The Capitals were playing for their season. On death's door in a way-too-crowded wild card race that could potentially come down to a sixth tiebreaker should it go into full chaos mode between now and the end of the season, the Capitals took to the ice in need of a victory.

And they absolutely played like it.

In what was one of the strongest defensive efforts put forth against the Bruins this season, the Capitals gave Jim Montgomery's club almost nothing throughout the night, and upped their intensity to a level that the Bruins just didn't seem all that interested in matching.

"I think the word 'struggle' is a compliment with the way we played tonight," Montgomery offered after the loss. "I thought Washington... their desperation, how well they defended, [and] how well they hung onto pucks in the offensive zone, that's how we want to play."

With the defeat, the Bruins suffered their second shutout loss of the season (both against the Caps).

Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars from a loss in DC...

Washington netminder Charlie Lindgren's season finale against the Bruins featured some light work, all things considered, as he had to turn aside just 16 shots in total for the shutout victory. Excluding early exits and relief appearances, the 16-save victory was Lindgren's lightest workload in a winning effort this season, and earned him his second shutout against the Bruins this season.

Whether or not this was his own personal revenge for the Bruins trading his brother (and current Rangers defenseman) Ryan back in 2018, Lindgren became just the seventh goaltender to post multiple shutouts over the Bruins in the same season since 2005. The other goalies on that list: Montreal's Cristobal Huet (2005-06) and Jaroslav Halak (2006-07), New York's Henrik Lundqvist (2007-08), Washington's Braden Holtby (2014-15), Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk (2016-17), and Carolina's Freddie Andersen (2021-22).

Even in a loss, Monday felt like a step forward for the Bruins' Jeremy Swayman.

Back in net after a 22-of-26 loss against the Hurricanes last week, Swayman responded with a strong 23-save outing, and took a hard-luck loss with just one goal against. And believe me, this one would've been a lot worse for the Black and Gold without the dialed-in performance of the 25-year-old Swayman.

Swayman, who at one point was borderline playing himself out of the Bruins committing themselves to a playoff rotation in goal, has now posted a .919 save percentage (91 saves on 99 shots) over his last four outings, and has allowed two goals or fewer in three of those four contests.

The only skater to beat a goaltender in this one, John Carlson put the Capitals on the board with the only goal needed early in this one, with his blast hammered by Swayman at the 12-minute mark of the opening period.

While Carlson's goal had an awful lot to do with a miscommunication between Jake DeBrusk and Charlie Coyle, Carlson had the veteran know-how to dish the puck and then open himself back up for an even better look on Swayman.

In addition to the goal, Carlson added one block, one hit, and tallied four shots on goal.

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