Bruins Notebook: Bruins will have a chance to secure No. 3 seed in East during Sunday's showdown with Capitals

Despite a pretty disheartening start to Phase 4 play, the Bruins will enter the weekend with a chance to dig themselves out of the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Thanks to the Flyers’ impressive 3-1 victory over the Capitals on Thursday night, the Bruins have an opportunity to leapfrog Washington and secure the No. 3 seed going into the next round of play — so long as they defeat the Capitals on Sunday in their round-robin finale.

Through two games of round-robin action, here’s where the four top seeds in the East all standing as far as points go:

Tampa Bay Lightning - 4 points
Philadelphia Flyers - 4 points
Washington Capitals - 1 point
Boston Bruins - 0 points

Obviously, a regulation victory on Sunday would give Boston the outright 2-1 edge over the Caps in the standings, but even if Washington collects a point through an overtime/shootout loss, the Bruins would hold the tie-breaker in a 2-2 scenario — considering that Boston held the edge over Washington in terms of regular-season points. 

The Lightning and Flyers will also battle for the No. 1 seed on Saturday, with the winner of that matchup officially usurping the Bruins — the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners — as the top dog up in Toronto.

Considering the production put forth by Boston so far up in Scotiabank Arena, Bruce Cassidy’s club is lucky to be in a spot in which they could jump ahead of the Capitals — considering the B’s have yet to hold a lead for one second of their 180 minutes of game action so far in Phase 4. 

Even if Wednesday’s loss to the Lightning was a step in the right direction for a slumping B’s team, they still have a lengthy checklist of items to sort through on Sunday’s game — headlined by Ondrej Kase’s expected return to the top-six forward corps and the dilemma that comes with finding which pieces best fit on both David Krejci and Charlie Coyle’s lines.

While Cassidy and his club will likely be focused on building their own game and solving the ongoing middle-six puzzle with their pool of wingers, getting the chance to knock the Capitals out of the No. 3 seed should serve as added motivated for the Bruins — who traded some heavy hits with the Metropolitan Division powerhouse during their last meeting way back on Dec. 23, 2019.

Granted, even if the Bruins’ comments following Wednesday's loss seemed to signal that many of the perks that come with higher seeding have been negated in this neutral-site format, Boston could



make things much easier for themselves if they manage to get over the hump against the Caps and avoid that No. 4 seed. 

Barring how the rest of these qualifying rounds pan out, the Bruins could very well avoid a first-round matchup against a team like the No. 5 Penguins (trailing 2-1 in their series with No. 12 Montreal, but still very deadly) or the No. 6 Hurricanes (a team that made quick work of the No. 11 Rangers and are better than last year's ECF squad) if they avoid that No. 4 seed.

Of course, getting past the Capitals on Sunday is easier said than done. Along with Boston's struggles so far up in the bubble, Washington has had the B's number for years now — winning 16 of its last 18 matchups against the Bruins.

However, there is some reason for optimism if you're the Bruins — at least as far as matchups go. Washington could be without third-center center Lars Eller for the round-robin finale, given that the pivot left the bubble for the birth of his second child. John Carlson has also not played in a game for Washington since falling into the end boards during the Caps' exhibition matchup against the Hurricanes last week.

Of course, there's still the elephant in the room in Caps goalie Braden Holtby — who has posted a record of 18-4-0 with an absurd .939 save percentage, 1.98 goals-against average and four shutouts over 22 games against the Black and Gold.

But this year, Holtby has been surprisingly mortal, posting a save percentage of .879 against Boston despite earning the victory in two of those three tilts. Among the 29 goalies that have logged at least 2,050 minutes of ice time this year, Holtby is 28th in goals saved above expectation at -22.74 and 28th in save percentage on high-danger shots (.780).

Of course, Boston has its own issues to sort out going into this matchup on Sunday, but a strong showing against another slumping squad in the Capitals could help salvage what has otherwise been a pretty miserable week for Boston up north of the border.

B’s sign Lantosi to ELC 

The Bruins took care of some housekeeping during their off day on Thursday, as the club announced that it signed Providence forward Robert Lantosi to a one-year, entry-level contract with an NHL cap hit of $750,000. 

Lantosi was a solid pickup last season for Boston, with the club signing the 24-year-old forward to an AHL contract last summer after impressing in the Slovak Tipsport Liga, the top league in Slovakia, during the 2018-19 season. Lantosi, who tallied 58 points in 56 games overseas, made a pretty smooth transition over to the AHL ranks — recording 11 goals and 20 assists over 50 games down in Providence. 

https://twitter.com/BruinsNetwork/status/1210767883787091969

While the depth chart up in the NHL ranks is already pretty loaded, retaining a player like Lantosi seems to be a prudent move for the organization — especially with some key cogs in the AHL like Jack Studnicka set to remain up with Boston come the 2020-21 season.