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Round-Robin Preview: Boston Bruins

On Monday the Caps took a slow start and turned it into a comeback (where have we seen that movie before), but eventually fell in the shootout to the Lightning. That one point puts them firmly in third place in the round-robin standings, with Tampa leading the way at a perfect 2-0-0 and the Bruins failing to get a point through their first two games.

So here we are – the final game of the round-robin tournament. And with the Caps not exactly showing their best stuff through the first two games, they find themselves battling it out just to finish third out of four. Do that, and they take on the Islanders in the first round; lose, and they drop to fourth and a date with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Let’s break it down one more time.

Season Series: Caps 2-1-0

November 16, 2019 – Caps 3, Bruins 2 (SO)
A typically feisty and close affair between the Caps and Bs heads to the shootout, where Jakub Vrana earns the game-winner with this insane toe-drag:

Playoff History

Three Boston Players to Watch

Key Injuries
None.

Special Teams

Bottom Line
One of the Caps’ last games of calendar year 2019 was a rare – and rather lopsided – loss to the Bruins right before Christmas. That marked just the second time in the last 18 games that the Bruins managed to beat the good guys, and put a bit of a damper on end-of-year festivities. What does that mean for today’s game? Well… not much, really, because it’s been almost eight months and neither team is playing particularly well so far since the round-robin tournament got underway.

Still, despite that loss, the Caps do have history on their side. And they know what happens if they win and if they lose… although your guess is as good as ours which team the Caps prefer to face. Maybe they want to take on their old coach and prove that they can beat the man who gave them their first Cup, and maybe they want to exact revenge on the team that halted their quest for back-to-back a year later.

Regardless, as the final tune-up before the real games start, this is likely to be the closest to playoff hockey we’ve seen out of either team so far.

So… who you got?

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