NBCSN’s coverage of the 2017-18 NHL season continues with a doubleheader on Tuesday night. In the early game, the Boston Bruins will host the Detroit Red Wings at 7:00 p.m. ET. You can watch that game online by clicking here.
The Red Wings don’t have much left to play for this season, so they’ll have to serve as a spoiler down the stretch. The Wings have dropped three games in a row and they’re coming off a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. Detroit is ahead of Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo in the East right now.
“It’s an easy time for frustration to build up and there’s nothing wrong with being frustrated now, and [we] should be,” head coach Jeff Blashill said, per NHL.com. “If you’re not, you probably shouldn’t be a competitor. We’ll have to regroup tomorrow and understand there’s not one thing we can do about it except learn from it and be better on Tuesday [at the Boston Bruins] and find a way to win. Winning games is important, and we’ve got to find a way to win Tuesday.”
Blashill has tweaked his lines over the last couple of games. It sounds like Anthony Mantha will continue to play with Dylan Larkin and Justin Abdelakder. Tyler Bertuzzi will be with Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist, while Frans Nielsen, Andreas Athanasiou and Darren Helm will play together.
The Bruins have a little more to play for. They currently trail the Lightning by six points in the race for top spot in the Atlantic Division, but they also have three games in hand. Boston has won three games in a row and they own a 7-3-0 record in their last 10 games.
Boston will be without phenomenal rookie blue liner Charlie McAvoy in this one, after he left Saturday’s contest against Montreal early in the first period. The 20-year-old suffered an MCL sprain and he’ll be re-evaluated in four weeks.
“We can go in different directions but Carlo is an easy one to slot back in with (Chara) (because) they’ve played together,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy, per the Boston Herald. “Krug was with Miller and (Grzelcyk) was Miller if he goes back in.
“We are going to keep Holden and he can play left or right. That is something we are going to sort through. We had all seven out there but it is not set in stone what the six are going to be in.”
In the late game, the Anaheim Ducks will host the Washington Capitals at 10:00 p.m. ET. You can watch that game online by clicking here.
After dominating the Maple Leafs in Saturday’s Stadium Series game, the Caps are now heading on a three-game road trip through California. They’ll play in Anaheim tonight, Los Angeles on Thursday and San Jose on Saturday.
Saturday’s victory also put Braden Holtby’s personal six-game losing streak.
“Mentally, you just want to get back to not thinking, just playing again,” Holtby told the Washington Post. “Focus on the basics that way because it’s really not that far off of where we want to be. So it’s one of those situations that feels really bad, but it’s really not as bad as it seems. It’s not far off. It’s just a little tweak here or there in a game, and those losses turn into wins.”
Washington is one point ahead of Pittsburgh and two points ahead of Philadelphia for top spot in the Metro Division, but the Caps have two games in hand on the Pens and one game in hand on the Flyers.
Anaheim’s win over Chicago, on Sunday, allowed the Ducks to move into third place in the Pacific Division. They’ve now won back-to-back games and they have a 8-2-2 record in their last 12 outings.
“Obviously every point is huge for us,” Ducks winger Jakob Silfverberg said after the win over Chicago, per the OC Register. “It doesn’t matter who we go up against. If you don’t go all in and put your best foot forward, you’re not going to win.
“And I think we definitely got off to a very good start (on Sunday). Our power play got one right off the bat and then we just kind of kept pushing from there.”
The Ducks will travel to Nashville and Dallas for games on Thursday and Friday, but they’ll play their following four contests at home against three non-playoff teams (St. Louis, Vancouver, Detroit) and the Devils.
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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.