WASHINGTON – The Bruins can clinch their second consecutive Atlantic Division title with a win over the Capitals on Monday night in their final road game of the regular season. It would mark Boston’s first back-to-back division crowns since 2010-11 and 2011-12 and the 28th in team history.
“We’ve been more prepared on how we’re playing, trying to hone our game down the stretch,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said when asked if the division crown was a focus. “We’ve played a lot of really good teams, teams that are fighting for their lives, teams that are at the top of the league. We’ve always had success this year when we just focus day to day and not really looked at a bigger picture.
“We really haven’t been looking at that, but if we continue to focus on our game and put a good game on the ice and we’re detailed in our structure, we give ourselves an opportunity to win every night. The standings will take care of themselves.
“It would be good to clinch that and have home ice at some point, but we’re more concerned with how we’re playing and making sure we’re playing really well the last few games.”
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:
Powering Up
Boston, whose power play has continued to struggle over the last several weeks, made some changes to its units at Monday’s morning skate. The new-look units were:
- Kevin Shattenkirk, David Pastrnak, Danton Heinen, Pavel Zacha, and Pat Maroon
- Charlie McAvoy, Brad Marchand, Morgan Geekie, Charlie Coyle, and Jake DeBrusk
“Sometimes you just get a spark,” said Marchand. “I think that’s what they’re looking for, just anything to light us up and get us going…as lines right now, we’re playing well at 5-on-5 right now. Hopefully that can translate to the power play. But we definitely need to get it going. We need to be better…it’s one area we can improve upon. It’s kind of holding us back from getting to another level.
“Hopefully we can get that going the right way. It can only help us down the road here.”
Since March 1, Boston’s man advantage is clicking at just 16.7 percent, which ranks 26th in the NHL over that span. Coach Jim Montgomery said that the tweaks to the power-play units are about creating “more pace and purpose.”
“We’re not getting that kind of urgency that we think we need,” said Montgomery. “And as we build toward the playoffs, we’re hoping this will help. Like we do 5-on-5, we play with a lot of pace and purpose. We need that on the power-play offensively.”
