Think playoffs. That was the atmosphere pulsing at the Garden Tuesday night as the two best teams in the Eastern Conference squared off for the third time this season. The 30-15-4 Washington Capitals had beaten the Boston Bruins at home the first two times they met this season, and the first-place (35-8-5) Bruins were looking for a little revenge. Despite the two losses earlier in the season, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara wasn't entirely dissatisfied with the previous two meetings.
"We have been able to give them a tough time, too," Chara said. "They were good, hard, close games ... You can look at it as 'glass half empty' or 'glass half full.'"
The Bruins took only positives away from this latest rematch, as they not only played another tough game but also walked away with an overtime win. And as David Krejci banked the game-winner off Capitals defenseman Shaone Morrisonn on an overtime power play to seal the victory, winning goaltender Tim Thomas was already looking forward to a potential postseason matchup with the Capitals.
"I think it's two teams [tonight] that thought to themselves, 'Hey, we might have to go through each other later this year,'" Thomas said.
Thomas could be right, since both the Caps and the Bruins find themselves well-positioned for a postseason run, and both seem talented enough to ride their success to the finish line. Each team has more than a 10-point lead over its nearest divisional rival and shows no glaring weaknesses in its depth chart. But as much as it may seem so on the surface, these are not particularly similar teams. The Capitals and the Bruins have risen to the top by two very different paths.
The Bruins are led by defensively responsible players that emphasize head coach Claude Julien's system and swear by team defense. They are also an excellent offensive team, but they pride themselves on their defense and attitude first and foremost.
"We are playing a really good team game -- we really battle," Chara said. "We were trying to gain that identity to be a really hardworking, hard-to-play-against team, and I think we have it now."
The tenacious Bruins defense leads the league, having allowed just 103 goals in 48 games. Thomas also emphasized the team's resilience and attitude.
"This whole year, we've proven over and over that we don't quit on a game," Thomas said.
The blue-collar mentality is in part a carryover from last year, when the Bruins managed to take the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens to seven games in the first round of the playoffs.
The Caps had shown plenty of willingness to get dirty on defense in the previous two meetings between the clubs, which were low-scoring affairs. The Caps, however, are best known for their offensive talents.
"They play a very high-speed skill game, and they have some very skilled individuals," Chara said. "The combination of all those factors makes it very hard to play against [them]."
Although most of the talk surrounding the Capitals emphasizes Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, other players are contributing substantially on offense as well. Tomas Fleischmann, Alexander Semin, Viktor Kozlov and Brooks Laich each have over 25 points this season, a big reason that the Capitals are fourth in the league in goals scored.
One thing the Bruins and Capitals do have in common is the injury bug. Starters for both teams have lost significant time this season due to physical ailments. Patrice Bergeron is just returning to the Bruins from a frustrating stint on the bench due to his second concussion, and Phil Kessel continues to battle mononucleosis. The Capitals have had their own share of missed action due to injury, and as such they have had an extremely fluid set of defensive pairings.
