It was not realistic to expect Capitals rookie goalie Braden Holtby to stay red hot in his team’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Boston Bruins. The defending Stanley Cup champions were going to push back at some point after he saved 72 of the first 74 shots thrown his way. That finally happened in Game 3 on Monday night at Verizon Center, a 4-3 loss where Holtby needed his teammates to put up a big number to get a win.
Not that Holtby played poorly. It took a relatively soft goal early in the second period, a relentless push to the front of the net by the Bruins third and fourth-line grinders and a bad break on a deflected Zdeno Chara shot to doom Washington.
“The second and third goal, that was direct results of traffic in front,” Holtby said of tallies by fourth-line winger Daniel Paille and third-line winger Brian Rolston. “The second one goes off him, and I couldn’t find it real quick. It goes off of his stick. The third one, it’s a scramble. … Those are ones I would like to play a bit better, play harder, but those are goals they earned, and we want to make sure we outwork them in those areas.”
That was Boston’s plan all series. The Bruins just didn’t execute it very well in the first two games when they managed just two goals total. There was no real art to what they did on Monday. It was just a matter of fighting to get toward the front of the net — though poor defensive coverage and rebound control from Holtby was in part to blame for Paille’s goal at 9:38 of the second period. There wasn’t a soul around him. And Rich Peverley’s goal 35 seconds into the second period was soft, according to Holtby.
“I think it’s just following the puck. Your eyes — some days they’re on, some days they’re just a bit off. You can tell that from the start, and when it’s going to happen, you just start battling,” he said. “It’s not the first time it’s happened, and it’s not the end of the world. You can’t be 100 percent at your best every day.”
– Brian McNally
