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Caps beat Bruins 3-2 thanks to Tom Wilson, weird, right?

By Peter Hassett

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November 4, 2017 9:37 pm

The Capitals have now won ten games in a row against the Boston Bruins. Dating back to the late 80s, the Caps just have the Bs number. Here’s the story of the tenth victory in a row, which featured Tom Wilson in starring role, just to tick off everyone up in Boston.

The scoring started, oddly enough, off Tom Wilson’s stick – a no-angle shot after an o-zone faceoff. Alex Ovechkin notched his first goal since October 20 before the first period was up, giving the Caps a lovely 2-0 lead going into intermission.

David Pastrnak got past the Caps defense to get the Bs on the board early in the second, but Tom Wilson, oddly enough, scored again in the second period with a deflection on Brooks Orpik’s shot to give the Caps a cozy 3-1 lead heading into the third.

The Caps killed seven minutes of penalties in the third period before David Pastrnak scored short-side to make it a one-goal game.

Caps win 3-2!

  • First: let us wish a hearty happy birthday to Kris Ostergard, who’s been our savior over the last couple months. Have a good one, KO!

  • Tom Wilson has never had a two-goal game before tonight. That’s a weird thing to say considering he scored two goals against Toronto on April 19, but – counter to every sports conversation you’ve ever had – with this statistic, the playoffs don’t matter.
  • Washington’s power play is still struggling, without a marker since October 20 and oh-fer on two opportunities in Boston. While they’re not generating nearly enough shots, the team is also just sorta snakebit right now. It’ll pass, I think and hope.
  • Braden Holtby was a revelation in net. He looked like the netminder who made the last couple regular seasons a breeze. That’s a comforting sight when the puck makes its way to the Caps’ end, which it seems to be doing more often this season….
  • Congrats to referee Chris Rooney or whoever on his 1000th game or whatever.

  • The strength-on-strength battle of Nick Backstrom and Patrice Bergeron was no contest: Bergeron won comfortably.
  • Alex Ovechkin had gone five games without a goal before hitting the back of the net on Saturday, capping off a play from Ovi’s two Russian teammates, which is just joke fodder these days.
  • Liam O’Brien played ten minutes in his first game since January 9. He had a bit of rust, but getting ten minutes in that role is noteworthy if only because Trotz doesn’t often show that much trust in his fourth line fill-ins.
  • Who could have guessed that penalties would hurt the Caps? An errant high stick put Brooks Orpik in the box for four minutes early in the third, which didn’t hurt as bad as you might think because two reason: 1) Braden Holtby rules, 2) it was just Brooks Orpik in the box. The Caps added two more minors in the third, which means they spent approximately way too long down a man with the game on the line.
  • Excellent performance by Dmitry Orlov and Madison Bowey, who are a darn sturdy pairing on the blue line.

Another win for the Caps that was perhaps not wholly deserved. This is certainly shaping up to be an interesting season. I’ll be making my snapshot debut tomorrow around lunchtime. Let’s talk about it more then.

Full Coverage of Caps at Bruins

Headline photo: Steve Babineau

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