Need to Know: Bruins at Capitals

WASHINGTON – Two nights after clinching their eighth consecutive postseason berth, the Bruins will get back to game action with a tilt against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Saturday night.

Boston will be closing out the second part of a six-game stretch away from TD Garden, which features three separate road trips. The Bruins – who dropped a game in Philadelphia last weekend before splitting matchups in Florida and Tampa earlier this week – will return home following their meeting with the Capitals for a day off on Sunday and a practice on Monday morning before getting back on the road for a two-game trip to Nashville and Carolina.

“We’re playing some great teams down the stretch, a team like Washington is fighting for their lives to get in,” said Kevin Shattenkirk, who will return to the lineup on Saturday night. “It forces us to kind of match the desperation given the chance that we’ve already clinched. There’s still work to do. I think we’re all taking that challenge and remembering that we need to be ready to go once playoffs start.”

Here's everything else you need to know ahead of the 7 p.m. ET puck drop on NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub:

A Spot at the Dance

With losses by Detroit and Philadelphia on Thursday night, the idle Bruins earned a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And while captain Brad Marchand acknowledges the Black & Gold should be proud of that accomplishment, he also noted that there is plenty of work left to be done with eight games remaining in the regular season.

“At the start of the season, that’s what you set out to do, get a spot in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter where you end up in those 16 seeds, make sure you’re there and get a seat at the table,” Marchand said following Boston’s practice at the Capitals’ training facility in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday afternoon.

“We did a great job accomplishing that first goal. We have eight games left that we need to continue to climb and fine tune our game so that we’re prepared come playoff time. I think we need to be proud of that first step. We came together really well here. We battled through a lot of adversity and a lot of changes in our lineup. So, we have to be proud of that fact, but we can’t get complacent.

“That’s not what we set out to do at the start of the year. That’s part of the goal, it’s not the whole goal. There’s still a lot that we need to accomplish this year. That’s one step of the way. Definitely happy about it. We got to where we needed to be and now it’s about getting further.”

Marchand said the Bruins must use the final two weeks of the regular season to shore up their game as much as possible as they gear up for Game 1.

“A great opportunity for us to get ready for the dance,” said Marchand. “We thrive when we play a certain way and when we get away from that, we’re a team that can be beaten. I think the next eight games are our biggest challenge and what we need to fine tune, making sure we put that game on the ice every single night regardless of how tired we are or the travel or who we’re playing.

“It’s about preparing the same way each night. Come playoff time you can’t just flip a switch. There’s a lot of teams that are fighting for their lives right now and playing really well. If you don’t have that same mindset, you’re going to get caught off guard come playoff time.”

Opposing View

Since these two teams last met on Feb. 10 in Boston – a 3-0 win for Washington – the Capitals are 14-7-2 and have pushed themselves into the East’s second wild card spot, two points clear of the Red Wings. Washington (36-27-9, 81 points) has won six of its last eight games but is coming off a 5-1 loss to Toronto on Thursday night.

“They’re a real good team in the sense that they’ve really figured out to win close games,” said Montgomery. “They don’t beat themselves. They’re well-coached, [first-year head coach Spencer Carberry] there has done a great job in getting them to believe in a defense-first approach and they really clog the middle of the ice.”

Montgomery added that Washington “embarrassed us the last time we played them,” which he hopes serves as a motivating factor for his club on Saturday night.

“They embarrassed us on our home ice,” said Montgomery. “What we learned is it’s a team that’s really committed to checking. It’s a team that plays the right way and it’s a team that  we better be ready to go if we want to have a chance of success.”

Massachusetts native John Carlson is expected to play in his 1,000^th career game on Saturday night just weeks after fellow Washington staple T.J. Oshie hit the mark. The former first-round pick in his 15^th NHL season, all with Washington.  His 45 points (7 goals, 38 assists) rank third on the Capitals this season.

“A great achievement,” said Montgomery. “I remember watching him in the USHL as a college scout. He was a guy that really blossomed that year and became a first-round pick. I just love how simple he makes the game and how effective he is. He’s so efficient, he executes so well.

“He’s a great power-play quarterback. Just how simple…he just moves it, he doesn’t complicate it. It doesn’t look like he’s working all that hard but he’s just really good. He’s got a cannon, great vision.”

After notching just nine goals in his first 44 games, Washington captain Alex Ovechkin has been on a tear across the second half of the season with 18 goals in his past 26 games, which ranks fourth in the NHL during that time frame.

“This guy, it’s amazing how successful he is,” said Montgomery. “You know [that shot is] coming and it’s like, ‘try and stop me.’”

Wait, There’s More

• Aiming to match Washington’s top line of Ovechkin and Oshie, Montgomery is opting to pair Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy together. “We’re just trying different things. Washington’s got a big, heavy line, Oshie and Ovechkin on one line. We’ll see how our top two D handle getting out there against them,” said Montgomery. “We’ve done it a couple times earlier in the year against certain teams and we want to see what it looks like again because they don’t get enough reps together and they’re always out there at the end of games…the more opportunities they get to play with each other, the better they are in those situations.”
• Shattenkirk, who sat out the last three games as a healthy scratch, will be back in the lineup alongside Andrew Peeke against the Caps. “It can be hard, for sure,” Shattenkirk said of being in and out of the lineup. “You have to work hard in practice and making sure that when you are watching games from the sidelines, you’re staying sharp and picturing yourself, I guess, in the game and what you would be doing. Reps in game are obviously the most important thing but I think tonight for me it’s probably just a matter of keeping it simple early and getting into the flow of the game early before you really start to do too much too early. It’s gonna be a great game for me tonight, I’m excited for it.”
• Up front, Jakub Lauko will sub back in for James van Riemsdyk and skate on a line with Johnny Beecher and Jesper Boqvist. “Physicality. Emotion. Playing the right way, playing above pucks, being vocal on the bench, bringing energy to the group,” Montgomery said of what he’s looking for from his bottom-six. “Besides that, the structure of how we want to play and holding on to pucks.”
• Jeremy Swayman will start in goal for the Bruins.
• Boston’s power play is 1 for 11 over its past four games, a trend that Montgomery thinks has been lingering for much a longer period of time. “The power play hasn’t gone the way we expect it to and the way the players expect it to probably for a month now,” said Boston’s bench boss. “We’ve done a lot of talking about it. Now the act has to start taking place on ice.”
• Back in Boston, Pat Maroon has ramped up his on-ice work as he inches closer to his Bruins debut. “He’s doing better,” said Montgomery. “I think it’s three days in a row on the ice. Looking better and better, it’s just a matter of getting his conditioning up now.”

Saturday’s Projected Lineup

FORWARDS

Brad Marchand – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak

Danton Heinen – Charlie Coyle – Trent Frederic

Jake DeBrusk – Morgan Geekie – Justin Brazeau

Johnny Beecher – Jesper Boqvist – Jakub Lauko

DEFENSEMEN

Hampus Lindholm – Charlie McAvoy

Matt Grzelcyk – Brandon Carlo

Kevin Shattenkirk – Andrew Peeke

GOALIES

Jeremy Swayman

Linus Ullmark