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Posted at 1:15 PM EST.

7:35 PM EST. In the NHL, you have to be hungry to succeed and the Capitals hunger was satisfied beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Thus, you all know the drill. The Caps will raise the banner tonight. The Cup hangover figures to be literal after they partied hard this summer. Alex Ovechkin definitely got his arm work in by constantly lifting the Cup over his head, but the sheer emotional catharsis of finally beating the Penguins in the postseason and finally winning a title could easily see the Capitals sleepwalking until January or February. Additionally, the Caps know a little bit about overdoing it in the regular season only to get knocked out early in the playoffs. With virtually the same lineup that helped the franchise go all the way, we seriously cannot imagine for a second that the Caps are going to be a strong first-half team. Aside from all that and despite winning the Cup, Washington was a middle of the pack analytics squad last year and now they come in far less motivated. Braden Holtby got hot at the right time and the Knights’ ship ran its course until the Cup Finals, which is why the Caps went all the way. They have nothing more to prove and they also go from being the hunter to the hunted.

At its best and when all are healthy, Boston’s top unit of Patrice Bergeron between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak is without peer at both ends of the ice. Now throw in a glut of defensemen and the Bruins just might have the deepest blueline in the Atlantic or perhaps in the entire NHL. Those two factors can carry a team a long way, particularly one that is backstopped by the capable Tuukka Rask.

Both Charlie McAvoy and Jake DeBrusk had outstanding first seasons in the NHL. The Bruins employed five full-time rookies last season, so it’s not a stretch to suggest some of those players will regress in Year 2 but what if they don’t? How good could this team be? Great contributions also came from Danton Heinen, Matt Grzelcyk and Sean Kuraly. At the tail end of the season, the Bruins were getting additional offensive support from another fresh face: Ryan Donato, who snuck into the final dozen games of the campaign and provided quite the scoring punch, notching five goals and nine points in 12 games. The Bruins were a powerhouse on the attack last season with one of the league’s best power plays. They are solid in goal and on the blueline and are very simply a great value bet to start off the year with a victory against the champs.

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