Caps 5, Bruins 3
Things are never easy in Caps land. Play a picture perfect 40 minutes of hockey against a really good team in the Boston Bruins, take all of 9 minutes, 51 seconds to cough up that lead, pull the starting goalie for a 21-year-old rookie making his NHL debut and yet pull out a win anyway thanks to a late goal. That’s how these guys roll – even though they don’t really like it any more than you do. Check out our game story for all the relevant details.
“Well, we never give up. That’s one thing that you have to admire about this team,” said Caps defenseman Mike Green. “We never give up, always believe. I think sometimes that’s why we sneak away with wins like this. We get lucky that way.”
Green admitted this is all getting a bit tiresome. It was almost a carbon copy of Wednesday’s shootout win over the Maple Leafs – and countless other near misses over the last two years. Washington has no doubt become better at shutting down the opposition in these late-game situations, not always taking chances when dumping the puck in is the smart play. But nights like the past two show that lesson doesn’t always stick. Even so, Caps coach Bruce Boudreau wasn’t about to play Debbie Downer.
“No, but I feel great about the fact that we played tremendous the first two periods,” Boudreau said. “So I’m not going to try to spin any negatives from this. That’s a great team and we shut them down with 11 or 12 shots in two periods. They came out really hard in the third and got two power-play goals on a couple of breakdowns. But then we righted the ship and I don’t think they had more than one scoring chance after that.”
Special teams struggled tonight. The Bruins scored twice on the power play in 55 seconds to climb back into the game early in the third period. Washington, meanwhile, was 0-for-3 on its power-play chances. Green admitted that a missed opportunity on the PP up 3-0 to start the third period took the wind out of their sails a bit. Boston took advantage almost right away after killing off the final 1:27 of that one coming out of intermission.
Notable Quotable
Bruins F Shawn Thornton on Boston giving the Caps too much time with the puck:
“I don’t want to take anything away from them – I think they’re a really good team – but I think a lot of the chances we gave them by not playing our game. Obviously, they’re so gifted offensively that if they have control of the puck, they’re going to do things with it. I think we had to do a better job trying to keep the puck away from them.”
Caps Notes
» Washington improved to 9-4 overall – and 6-1 at Verizon Center – with 18 standings points. That’s tied with the L.A. Kings for most in the NHL after Friday’s play and sets up a nice early-season showdown with the Flyers on Sunday afternoon. Philadelphia is 8-4-1 with 17 points, the third-best record in the league.
» The Bruins dropped to 7-3 with the loss and stand at 14 points in the Eastern Conference.
» Green and John Carlson are tied for most points by a Caps defenseman with eight.
» Alex Semin and Alex Ovechkin each have a team-high eight goals. Semin’s short-handed tally in the second period was Washington’s fourth of the season already. Ovechkin has a five-game point streak. Semin has a goal in each of the last three.
» The Caps became the first team this season to score three goals on Boston’s Tim Thomas, who previously beat them twice this season.
» Boston managed just three shots in the first period and Washington out-shot it 39-18 overall.
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
