The Washington Capitals were on ice for a practice Wednesday morning in preparation for Thursday night's opening playoff game with the Boston Bruins.  Some notes from Kettler Capitals Iceplex:

Michal Neuvirth, who practiced on Tuesday for the first time since sustaining an injury in the penultimate game of the Capitals' season, was not on the ice at all.  According to coach Dale Hunter, he did not have a setback, and he will go on the trip to Boston.  Tomas Vokoun did skate for 20 minutes before practice, but is nowhere close to returning; he will not make the trip.  Braden Holtby seems to be locked in as the playoff starter for the foreseeable future at this point, and will start Thursday's game.

Mattias Sjogren, who was recalled on Tuesday from the Swedish Elite League, joined his team for practice, skating on the bottom conglomerate line.  The units at practice were Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer, Chimera-Backstrom-Semin, Hendricks-Beagle-Johansson, Aucoin-Perreault-Ward, Knuble-Halpern-Eakin-Sjogren. All eight defensemen were on the ice for the skate, as has been the case for the last week or so.  As of now, it still looks like Jeff Schultz will be back in the lineup over Dmitry Orlov for game one, skating with Dennis Wideman.

That's all for now.  As always, follow me on Twitter here for news and updates.

Information from Sky Kerstein was used in this post.

Puck possession is a huge factor in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  The team that has the puck more often is more likely to score and is less likely to be scored upon.  With that in mind, here is a breakdown of the four Boston Bruins centers the Capitals faced most often in the regular season, the top Capitals centermen, and how they fared against each other. 

The five most-used Capitals centermen against the Bruins this season were Brooks Laich, Mathieu Perreault, Keith Aucoin, Jeff Halpern, and Jay Beagle.  Marcus Johansson took the second-most faceoffs on the team and finished 88th of 89 centers in the league in faceoff win percentage.  Since Johansson was used mostly as a winger in the four match-ups (only 23 faceoffs) and will likely continue in that role in this series, he is not included in this analysis.  Likewise, Keith Aucoin is likely to be used more as a winger than as a center. 

The top four Bruins centers the Capitals should expect to face in the playoffs are Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Chris Kelly, Gregory Campbell.  Rich Peverley was used as an extra center in 2 games in this series, but only took 15 faceoffs.   None of Boston's centers are particularly large, they are all about 6'1 and under 200, but they are all capable in the faceoff circle. 

As a team, the Bruins were the top team in the faceoff circle this season by a considerable margin at 54.5%.  The Washington Capitals fell dead even at 50%, 17th in the league, and predictably were outmatched by the Bruins in the season series.  The Capitals only won 102 of 238 faceoffs in 4 games, a 43% success rate.  Only in the first game did the Capitals even tie the Bruins, winning half of the 56 faceoffs in the game, but the Bruins won the match-up in the other 3 games. 

In brief, the Bruins have a distinct territorial advantage over the Capitals, not only in terms of their overall win percentage, but also in the head-to-head match-up.  The return of Nicklas Backstrom will be the X-factor, as Backstrom is larger than any of the Bruins centermen and he won 51.1% of his draws in the regular season.  Backstrom did not play against the Bruins in the regular season due to a concussion, but his return could help stem the tide at the dot by taking the burden off the Caps' other, often smaller, centers. 

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Photo by Clydeorama

As a result of Tuesday evening's draft lottery, the Washington Capitals will select 11th overall in June's NHL Entry Draft, to be held at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The Capitals hold this selection as a result of the trade that they made on July 1st of last year, dealing goaltender Semyon Varlamov to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for this pick and a second-round selection in either this draft or the 2013 draft.  Washington will be preceded in the draft order by Edmonton, Columbus, Montreal, the Islanders, Toronto, Anaheim, Minnesota, Carolina, Winnipeg, and Tampa Bay.

From research that I have done, there are a few players that the Capitals could pick with this selection that could be available when their number is called that I feel would be great for them.  One is Jacob Trouba, a big, physical defenseman who models his game after Shea Weber and is playing for the United States Under-18 team.  Another is Zemgus Girgensons, a center from Dubuque of the United States Hockey League, or Brendan Gaunce, a center from Belleville of the Ontario Hockey League.

More on this as we move closer to draft day, but the Avalanche really did the Caps a favor.

As always, follow me on Twitter here for news and updates.

The Washington Capitals were on ice Tuesday morning for a practice as they continue to prepare to meet the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.  Some updates from Kettler Capitals Iceplex:

Michal Neuvirth returned to the ice as a participant in practice, skating both before the session and during it.  Despite being able to practice, Neuvirth does not believe that he will be ready to play on Thursday, but hopes to be able to be back by the end of the series.  Tomas Vokoun also skated before practice, attempting to work out his wonky groin, but was not pleased with the results of his test.  It is looking less and less likely that Vokoun will be ready to play anytime soon.

Alexander Semin, who took a "maintenance day" on Monday, returned to the ice for practice.  As such, the lines were Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer, Chimera-Backstrom-Semin, Hendricks-Beagle-Johansson, Aucoin-Perreault-Ward, Knuble-Halpern-Eakin.  Also of note is that defenseman Jeff Schultz has been skating with Dennis Wideman the last two days, with Dmitry Orlov down on the last pairing with John Erskine.  This would seem to indicate that Schultz will be in the lineup for game one.

That's all for now.  As always, follow me on Twitter here for news and updates.

Information from Sky Kerstein was used in this post.

As the Washington Capitals and the Northeast Division Champion Boston Bruins are gearing up to face each other in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals this Thursday (April 12th), let's take a look back at the regular season series between the two teams. 

Washington Capitals Record vs. Boston Bruins: 3-1

 vs.
#2                                        #7
49-29-4, 102 points          42-32-8, 92 points

See the head-to-head match-up!

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

We here at Rock the Red are big fans of the Boston Bruins' ad campaign featuring a big, furry bear highlighting the rules of hockey. He's pretty darn funny. In recent years, however, the same Bear has been poking fun at Bruins Playoff opponents ranging from the Flyers to the Lightning to the Canucks. We here at Rock the Red know what's coming, and we aren't just going to sit here and let the furry funny guy fire the first shot at our beloved Caps. We're getting the jump on him.

More fire starting, after the jump.

The Washington Capitals were on ice for a practice Monday morning as they prepared for their opening playoff game Thursday night in Boston.  Some updates from Kettler Capitals Iceplex:

Michal Neuvirth skated for about 15 minutes well before practice with goaltending coach Dave Pryor, but was not able to practice.  He is still officially day to day with a lower body injury, but I would say that the possibility that he plays on Thursday is approaching "zero" quickly.  Dany Sabourin is still in Washington and is the backup goalie right now.  Tomas Vokoun will try skating on Tuesday, however.

Alexander Semin was also absent from practice because of a "maintenance day."  As such, the lines were Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer, Chimera-Backstrom-Knuble, Hendricks-Beagle-Johansson, and Aucoin-Perreault-Ward; Cody Eakin and Jeff Halpern were skating as extras.  It seems very curious to me that Backstrom and Ovechkin were not on the same line, as the former was basically drafted to play with the latter, but that's just the way she goes.  Of course, none of these are set in stone and they could change, especially when (if) Semin returns to the ice.

That's all for now.  As always, follow me on Twitter here for news and updates.