Bruins: 49-29-4, (102 points), Northeast Division Champion, 2nd in Eastern Conference
Capitals: 42-32-8, (92 points), 7th in Eastern Conference
Players to watch: Ovechkin (WSH), Semin (WSH), Backstrom (WSH), Green (WSH),Tim Thomas (BOS), Pouliot (BOS), Bergeron (BOS), Chara (BOS) & Seguin (BOS).
Tomorrow night in Boston, the defending Stanley Cup champions will be taking on the Washington Capitals in Round 1 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Capitals had the better of the Bruins in the season series by having a 3-1-0 record against the Bruins. But keep in mind, the Capitals third win against the Bruins came in a shootout and we will not be seeing any shootouts in the playoffs. So in retro-spec it's like the the Capitals beat the Bruins 2 times, lost once and tied once. In the 11-12 season, the Bruins Powerplay was ranked 15th in the NHL with a goals for percentage of 17.2%. As for the Capitals, they had the 18th best Powerplay with a goals for percentage of 16.7%. So in the powerplay department, both of these teams are about equal.
Washington were ranked 21st in the league on the Penalty kill with a percentage of 81.6%. The Bruins on the other hand were ranked 11th in the league with a percentage of 83.5%. So the Bruins have the upper-hand when it comes to killing penalty's. Boston was 3rd in the league in goals for and the Capitals were 14th in the league. So once again the Bruins have the upper-hand. As for goals against, the Capitals were 21st in the league and the Bruins were 6th in the league. With both Neuvirth and Vokoun being out with injuries, the Capitals will have to turn to Holtby start this series in net. Brandon Holtby played 7 games this season and had a record of 4-2-1. As for Sabourin, As for the Bruins, Tim Thomas will get the start in net. Thomas played 59 games and had a record of 35-19-1 with 5 shutouts. So I'm going to say that the Bruins have the upper hand in goal as well.
I predict that the Boston Bruins will beat the Washington Capitals in 7 games.
Written By Andrew Di Pardo
SERIES SCHEDULE:
| Thu Apr 12, 2012 | Capitals | Bruins | 7:30 PM | CBC, NBCSN, RDS2, NESN(HD) | |
| Sat Apr 14, 2012 | Capitals | Bruins | 3:00 PM | CBC, NBC, RDS | |
| Mon Apr 16, 2012 | Bruins | Capitals | 7:30 PM | CBC, NBCSN, RDS2, NESN(HD) | |
| Thu Apr 19, 2012 | Bruins | Capitals | 7:30 PM | CBC, NBCSN, RDS, NESN(HD) | |
| Sat Apr 21, 2012 | Capitals | Bruins | 3:00 PM | CBC, NBC, RDS | |
| Sun Apr 22, 2012 | Bruins | Capitals | TBD | ||
| Wed Apr 25, 2012 | Capitals | Bruins | TBD | NESN(HD) |
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