The Provi -- err, Boston Bruins wrap up the regular season Tuesday night in Washington.
Do not expect it to be a preview of the two teams' first-round playoff series that starts Saturday night.
With that series and seeding and everything else already set in stone, coach Bruce Cassidy is opting to rest the vast majority of Bruins regulars.
Here are all the Bruins who will not play Tuesday, according to Cassidy: Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Taylor Hall, David Krejci, Craig Smith, Sean Kuraly, Charlie Coyle, Ondrej Kase, Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzeclyk, Mike Reilly, Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon, Kevan Miller and Tuukka Rask.
Most of those are obviously just rest. Coyle is working his way back from an upper-body injury and is expected to be ready for the start of the playoffs.
Kase returned Monday night for his first game in nearly four months, but was ruled out for the rest of the game after the second period with an upper-body injury. That immediately led to concern that it was concussion symptoms again, but Cassidy provided a little bit of an encouraging update Tuesday, saying he doesn't believe his departure was related to the concussion.
"I don’t think so. I think there was a little bit of conditioning," Cassidy said. "It was his first game in a long time. What I was told was he just didn’t feel like he was getting through it where he needed to be, so he let the training staff know. They decided to say, ‘OK, let’s cut it short tonight.’ We’ll see where it ends up. Obviously he’s not going to play tonight."
So... who's actually playing for Boston? We know Jeremy Swayman is starting in goal, with either Jaroslav Halak, Dan Vladar or Callum Booth backing up.
On defense, there are six defensemen who have played for the Bruins this season that Cassidy did not list among those sitting: Connor Clifton, Jakub Zboril, Steven Kampfer, Jarred Tinordi, Urho Vaakanainen and Jack Ahcan. It could very well be those six, although Cassidy didn't confirm that.
Up front, there are 11 forwards who have played at least one game for the Bruins that Cassidy didn't list: Nick Ritchie, Jake DeBrusk, Curtis Lazar, Trent Frederic, Chris Wagner, Karson Kuhlman, Jack Studnicka, Anton Blidh, Zach Senyshyn, Greg McKegg and Oskar Steen.
All of them could be in (in fact, Cassidy specifically mentioned that Studnicka, Senyshyn and Steen would be), and then maybe one more call-up from Providence to round things out. Cameron Hughes, Paul Carey, Jakub Lauko, Samuel Asselin and Robert Lantosi would all be options there.
If Ritchie does indeed play, he would be the only Bruin to play in all 56 games this season.
The Capitals, meanwhile, aren't resting nearly as many guys, with most of their regulars expected to play. They also didn't play last night, though.
Washington coach Peter Laviolette said that forward T.J. Oshie (lower body) and defenseman John Carlson (lower body) won't play, while Alex Ovechkin (lower body) is a game-time decision. Nicklas Backstrom (lower body) will play.
Center Evgeny Kuznetsov and goalie Ilya Samsonov remain in COVID protocol and are out.
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