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When: 12:00 p.m. EST
Where: Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Watch: NBC (HD)
Hear: 98.5 FM The Sports Hub

• The Bruins are in Washington, D.C. this afternoon to face the 2009-10 Presidents’ Trophy winners, Washington Capitals. The Caps have owned the Bruins this season in their three previous contests, as Boston is 0-2-1 this season and have been outscored 11-4 by Washington.
• This will be the131st meeting in their lifetime series with the Bruins holding a 68-36-22-4 record and 443-359 scoring advantage.
• The Black-and-Gold finish the season with an NHL-high of 17 sets of back-to-back games. With a win yesterday afternoon, the B’s now hold a 7-7-3 record in the first games, and are 8-6-2 in game twos.
• The Bruins locked-up a playoff berth and the sixth-seed in the Eastern Conference with their 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes yesterday. They will face the loser of today’s game: Buffalo Sabres (100) at the New Jersey Devils (101)
• Former first-round draft pick and eighth overall selection in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Zach Hamill will make his NHL debut today in a Boston sweater. Hamill, along with defenseman Andrew Bondarchuk, was recalled from the AHL Providence Bruins club yesterday. The P-Bears are in Lowell, MA, this afternoon against the Devils at the Tsongas Arena.
• Boston’s goaltending in second in the NHL in goals-against average, and are oh-so-close to a back-to-back Jennings Trophy. Tuukka Rask and Tim Thomas trail the New Jersey Devils by just 0.04 goals-against average per game on the season.
• Since these two teams won’t be seeing each other in the first-round of this year’s playoffs, it will be interesting to see which players caoch Boudreau (WSH) and coach Julien will be resting today. Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder, and Mark Recchi are the only three players on the Bruins squad to have dressed and played in all 81 games thus far. For Wheeler and Ryder, it would be nice for them to at least accomplish something this season. And as for Recchi, I’m sure he’ll log game 82 today.
• UPDATE: From Joe Haggerty Twitter: No Chara, Recchi, Bergeron or Rask today
• The B’s are 3-for-48 on the power play over their last 17 games, and 0-for-22 in their last seven-consecutive contests.
• On the other hand, Boston’s power play has successfully killed out 18 of their last 19 times short.

• Be sure to check out Michael Hoffman over at Examiner.com for all you Washington Capitals info.

Who’s Hot:

• Dennis Wideman extended his point-streak to four games yesterday, giving him 2-2–4 totals, and 3-5–8 totals in his last 11 games.
• Zdeno Chara is 0-4–4 in his last four-consecutive, and has totaled  2-7–9 in his last ten contests
• David Krejci has been en fuego; 3-8–11 totals in his last 10 contests and 5-13–18 totals over his last 16 games.
• Milan Lucic has a three-game point-streak with an empty-netter yesterday. Now giving him 1-2–3 totals over those three and 2-5–7 in his last 11.

Around the league:

• N.Y. Rangers can squeak into the playoffs with a regulation-time win over the eighth-place Philadelphia Flyers today at 3:00 p.m. EST. That game will be shown on NHLN (HD)
• The fourth-seed Sabres are in New Jersey at 5:00 p.m. EST to tackle the third-place Devils. It’s not on TV around here, unless you’re a Center Ice subscriber. The loser in this one will be the Bruins first-round opponents next week. Go Devils!