5 players to watch when Bruins host Alex Ovechkin’s Caps at TD Garden
With the playoffs looking more and more like a distant dream for the Bruins, much of the focus from those off the ice and in the stands has centered on ‘tanking’ as far as one can over the final eight games and seeing if the ping-pong balls can fall the B’s way later this spring.
But for those within the Black and Gold locker room and behind the bench, and having experienced the sting of eight straight losses (0-7-1) for what’s been the club’s worst eight-game segment in almost 30 years, the tank is not as important as the pride.
“I think it’s about getting our mindset focused to obviously win a hockey game number one as a group and how we go about doing it within the process. But also the part about the pride and the privilege. I’ve talked about those two things and I think that’s huge for our guys,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said following Monday’s practice at Brighton’s Warrior Ice Arena. “There’s a lot of opportunity here for some of our players that have come up now, players from different teams.
“So there’s the opportunity factor, but then there’s the pride, right? The pride of being a Boston Bruin. The pride of being being a good teammate, trying to obviously win hockey games and the privilege to play in this league. You can’t can’t take [playing in the NHL] for granted. You just can’t. You never know in this league how things [will] work out and I think those two things are real important for our guys but we want to play a good hockey game.”
But the element of pride will be going up against the East’s best on Tuesday night, with the 103-point Capitals in town for the season series finale between the sides. And though their status as the East’s top dog is not in much doubt between now and Game 82, the Caps do a have reason to get their own game in order coming into tonight’s game after back-to-back losses.
Here’s a closer look at five players to watch in Tuesday’s showdown at TD Garden…
Fabian Lysell
It’s been five NHL games and 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell is still looking for his first NHL point. But if these last two games have told us anything, it’s that the offensive timing is getting better. Going back to last week’s loss in Anaheim, Lysell had a sneaky-good opportunity that almost fooled the Ducks’ John Gibson and followed that up with a breakaway opportunity on Detroit’s Cam Talbot last Saturday.
Of course, you need the results and those have not been there yet. But Lysell has clearly embraced more of a shot-first mentality on this latest NHL opportunity, with the second-most shot attempts and third-most individual high-danger chances among all Bruins since drawing in the lineup on Mar. 22.
David Pastrnak
It’s difficult to find a team that Bruins superstar David Pastrnak hasn’t torched in his career, and the Capitals are no exception there, with No. 88 on the board with 13 goals and 33 points in 32 career showdowns against Washington. At the same time, though, these last two seasons have seen those numbers dry up, with zero goals and one assist in his last five outings against the Caps. (That coming after a four-season stretch with 10 goals and 24 points in 15 games makes it all the more surprising.)
And given his impact on Boston’s offense this season, he’s perhaps the only player that could truly will the Bruins out of their current slump and to a surprise victory over the Capitals.
Also something to note here: Pastrnak has been downright phenomenal on home ice this season, with 19 goals and 45 points in 37 games at TD Garden this season. Break it down by a point-per-game rate and Pastrnak’s 1.22 points per game make him the 14th-most lethal home-ice scorer in the league this year.
Mason Lohrei
Injuries to Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, as well as a deadline trade that sent Brandon Carlo packing to Toronto, were just some of the steps that have put second-year pro Mason Lohrei in one hell of a sink-or-swim situation as a top-pairing defenseman in the NHL.
And Lohrei is pretty much as advertised at this point. He’s going to make some dazzling plays to push pace the other way, and his shot can be especially potent (powerful and accurate is always a good combo for an offensive defenseman) when he activates into the attacking zone. But he’s also going to make some puzzling decisions in his own zone and end up fishing the puck out of his goalie’s net.
The problem for the Bruins is that there’s been a glaring uptick in the latter, with Lohrei dinged for a minus-16 rating over the course of the Black and Gold’s eight-game slide. This is not slump-specific for Lohrei, either, as he enters tonight’s game with a minus-34 rating, which is the worst among all NHL defensemen and trails only the Blackhawks’ Tyler Bertuzzi and Connor Bedard (minus-38) for worst in the entire league. As it stands right now, Lohrei is going to finish with not only the worst plus-minus by any Bruins player in the post-2005 era of hockey, but also the worst by any Bruin since the 1960s.
In case you’re curious: The worst post-2005 plus-minus posted by a Bruin was Patrice Bergeron‘s minus-28 in 2006-07, while the worst by any defenseman was a minus-22, shared by Paul Mara and Brad Stuart during the 2006-07 season.
Oh, and another ‘fun’ fact as it relates to this: The Bruins have not hard a plus-minus leader in the wrong direction since Doug Mohns posted a minus-62 rating during the 1961-62 season.
Alex Ovechkin
For a hot minute there, it was looking like the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin was going to hit the ice in Boston with a chance of breaking Wayne Gretzky‘s all-time goals record. But a ‘slump’ that’s seen Ovechkin score ‘just’ five goals over his 11 games has given this game a little less juice, with No. 8 coming into tonight’s game four goals away from matching Gretzky’s record and five away from breaking it.
Ovechkin also comes into this game riding a little bit of a dry spell when it comes to his head-to-heads against Boston, with just three goals in his last 16 meetings with the Bruins dating back to 2021.
But given the way this season has gone, you’re probably curious, so allow me to tell you: Nobody has scored five goals in a single game against the Bruins since Dave Andreychuk in 1986, though Michael Nylander had a four-goal outing against the Bruins back in 1999.
Ryan Leonard
You wanna talk about the rich getting richer? Already the best team in the Eastern Conference, the Capitals have welcomed a fresh new face to the mix to close out the season, with Boston College superstar Ryan Leonard officially signed and in line for his NHL debut tonight against the B’s.
The No. 8 overall pick from the 2023 NHL Draft, Leonard’s jump to the pro game comes following Boston College’s elimination from the Frozen Four this past Sunday, and following a collegiate career that featured 61 goals and 109 points in 78 games for the Eagles.
Oh, and he’s a Massachusetts kid making his NHL debut in Boston.
