Photo: Maddie Meyer
The Caps headed up to Boston to face the Bruins Tuesday. With the Capitals having lost two games in a row and the Bruins coming off a 5-1 defeat in the Winter Classic for their fourth loss in five games, both teams were looking for a win. As if they don’t normally try to win. Tonight, they really tried to win. Super hard.
The Capitals opened the scoring when Evengy Kuznetsov, who is not playing in Russia anymore, skated circles around the Boston defense before Andre Burakovsky, recently promoted to the second line, unleashed a glorious shot for the goal.
After some tomfoolery, Kuznetsov added to the Capitals’ lead as he zig-zagged through the Bruins zone before beating Tuukka Rask.
Boston got one back when Brett Connolly threaded the needle with a fantastic cross-ice pass to Loui Eriksson for the marker.
Marcus Johansson regained the two goal lead with some net crashing action in the third, but Patrice Bergeron struck on the power play less than a minute later when his shot deflected off Justin Williams’s stick and past Holtby. The Caps held the Bruins there though. A new streak! Caps beat Bruins 3-2.
- There’s not much need for a bullet on Evgeny Kuznetsov. You all saw what he did. He is an absolute wizard magician puppet master in the offensive zone. Burakovsky scored because all five Bruins were facing Kuznetsov. Washington’s second goal showed why people do that. He led the Caps with four SOGs.
- Zach Sill’s hit on Adam McQuaid was stupid and indefensible. McQuaid put himself in a vulnerable position, but the Department of Player safety has made clear you can’t make that hit. It didn’t accomplish anything either. It’s like Sill missed the last five years of NHL hockey. Probably because he’s not an NHL player. He shouldn’t have been given the opportunity to make any hits in the first place. It’s silly to put him at center over Michael Latta, noted NHL player. McQuaid was clearly messed up after the hit. He didn’t return.
GIF: Zach Sill's board of Adam McQuaid pic.twitter.com/g5aTxm5DwD
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 6, 2016
- The controversy didn’t stop there. In the first period, Zach Rinaldo lined up Tom Wilson from west of the Mississippi and crushed him. Jason Chimera then went HAM. The rules on charging are ambiguous. Rinaldo escaped without being penalized and that was probably the right call.
- Braden Holtby was perfect in three games against the Bruins last year with a trio of shutouts. Tuesday the shitbum allowed two goals. He has gone 19 games without losing a game in regulation. He leads the league with 25 wins.
- Andre Burakovsky has had a rocky season. Jay Beagle’s injury gave him an opportunity to jump back into the top six. He preformed beautifully. The whole second line was amazing.
- Meanwhile, Nate Schmidt, who y’all rated as Washington’s best defender because he smiles a lot, was ace on the second pair with Dmitry Orlov. Both were plus-nine in shot attempt differential, second best on the team.
- The top two power plays faced off tonight. Both teams played with fire with seven total penalties, but we ended up with a relatively low scoring game.
- Matt Niskanen and Karl Alzner got torched again with less than 30 percent of shot attempts going the Capitals’ way with them on the ice. Both led Washington in ice time again. John Carlson can’t come back soon enough.
- On the fifth anniversary of his captaincy, Alex Ovechkin had just one shot on goal. Is this real life?
- With Marcus Johansson‘s goal, the Capitals now have seven players with 10 or more goals, best in the league. The soft Johansson, who once again scored from the dirty area blue paint, was also much improved in the faceoff dot, winning six of 10 as he readjusts to life as a center.
- Congrats to Aaron Ness, who got his face ruined and his first Capitals assist in one night. He was pretty good too. Barry Trotz rewarded him with a nearly 50 percent increase in ice time.
The Bruins are a pretty good team and the Capitals played better than them. After two straight losses, that’s good enough for me.
#Caps improve to franchise-best 29-7-3 (61pts) through 39 games.
Presidents' Trophy winners in 2009-10 were 24-9-6 (54pts) at same stage.— Ben Raby (@BenRaby31) January 6, 2016
