Braden Holtby continued his dominance against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night as he recorded his third shutout of the season against the Black and Gold in the Capitals’ 3-0 victory. Washington swept the season series against Boston in dominating fashion.

The B’s had great scoring chances on the night, but Holtby stonewalled the hometown team in every which way possible on his way to a 27-save performance.

On Boston.com: Bruins playoff picture gets cloudy after loss to Caps

Boston will need to turn the page quickly as they travel to South Florida to face off against the Panthers Thursday night. The B’s own a 2-0-1 record against the Panthers this season, including a 3-2 comeback win in their last meeting on March 31st at TD Garden.

The Panthers are eliminated from the playoffs, while the B’s are still fighting for their postseason lives.

Despite yesterday’s loss to the Caps, the Bruins can still clinch a playoff spot tonight with a win over the Panthers, along with a Senators loss to the Rangers in regulation.

Here is your complete Bruins-Panthers Preview:

Gametime: 7:30 PM
Records: Bruins 41-26-13 (94 points)/Panthers 36-29-15 (87 points)
TV/Radio: NESN-Plus, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Location: BB&T Center

Bruins’ projected lines:

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Loui Eriksson
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-David Pastrnak
Chris Kelly-Ryan Spooner-Brett Connolly
Gregory Campbell-Carl Soderberg-Reilly Smith

Zdeno Chara-Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug-Dennis Seidenberg
Matt Bartkowski-Zach Trotman

Tuukka Rask
Niklas Svedberg

Panthers’ projected lines:

Jonathan Huberdeau-Aleksander Barkov-Jaromir Jagr
Brandon Pirri-Vincent Trocheck-Jimmy Hayes
Jussi Jokinen-Dave Bolland-Steve Kampfer
Tomas Kopecky-Derek MacKenzie-Shawn Thornton

Brian Campbell-Aaron Ekblad
Willie Mitchell-Erik Gudbranson
Dmitry Kulikov-Alex Petrovic

Roberto Luongo
Dan Ellis

Who to watch for Bruins: Brad Marchand

Over the last few weeks, Marchand’s game has been missing. He may be playing at less than 100 percent, but who isn’t at this point of the season?

Over his last 15 games, the “Little ball of Hate” has a grand total of zero goals and two assists. There were times this season where Marchand carried the team on his back, but that hasn’t happened as of late. Even in the midst of the B’s recent five-game win streak, Marchand was nearly invisible.

In Wednesday night’s game against the Capitals, it was much of the same for Marchand. He finished the night with zero points, a minus-1 rating and just two shots on net.

If the B’s have any chance of making the playoffs, No. 63 needs to turn on the jets — and fast.

Who to watch for Panthers: Aaron Ekblad

The Panthers don’t have as much fire power as the Capitals, but Ekblad is having an impressive rookie season for Florida.

In 79 games played this season, the 19-year-old defenseman has 37 points (12 goals, 25 assists), good for second among first-year blue liners behind Dallas’ John Klingberg (39 points). He also has four game-winning goals for his team, and is one of the favorites to take home the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.

In his last three games, Ekblad has one goal and an assist while averaging 19 minutes of ice time totaling 68 shifts.

Ekblad wasn’t too impressive in his last game against the Black and Gold, though. He sported a minus-1 while blocking two shots and adding one hit.

Game Day Edge: Bounce back

After a dismal performance in Washington, Boston just has to bounce back with just two games remaining to decide its fate. Again, the Panthers are not the Capitals, but they have given the B’s a run for their money in every meeting this season.

As Claude Julien juggles his lines, one line has to take charge and lead the way. The B’s are not a team that plays well from behind, so scoring the first goal is very important in this pivotal road game.

It will be interesting to see if the B’s can bounce back in the second night of a back-to-back, but in recent memory when their backs are against the wall, they have answered nicely — although time is running out.