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Can’t stop, won’t stop: Caps beat Bruins 5-3

By Patrick Holden

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December 14, 2017 10:46 pm

The Caps entered Boston, on Thursday night, having last lost to the Bruins sometime during the Grover Cleveland administration. The streak lives on.

With about two and a half minutes to go in the first period, Jakub Vrana split the Bruins defense and put home a slick shot to bring the good guys up 1-0.

In the second, Patrice Bergeron put away a power play goal to tie the game at 1-1. The Caps answered with a power play goal of their own later in the period. Nicklas Backstrom banked in a beautiful feed from Evgeny Kuzetnsov to make it 2-1 Caps. Rumor is Kuzy called bank.

In the third, Christian Djoos made a nice feed to Alex Chiasson in front of the Bruins cage. Mr. Chiasson put the biscuit in the basket to extend the Caps’ lead to 3-1. With just under 10 minutes to go, Brooks Orpik was sent to the box on a questionable call. It didn’t matter because you can’t stop Alex Chiasson. Chiasson blocked a shot at the blue line and was off to the races. He buried the breakaway chance to push the lead to 4-1. David Krejci pulled the Bruins within two late. Alex Ovechkin iced the game with an empty-net bank shot. He definitely called bank. Bergeron added a late meaningless goal.

Caps win 5-3.

  • Lars Eller put home a rebound in the opening minutes but the goal was correctly overturned due to offside on the zone entry. But it’s great to see the third line starting to click. Last season, this trio was one of the best third lines in hockey. If they can come close to duplicating that success, it’ll be a huge boost to this team.
  • How awesome was Jakub Vrana’s goal that put the Caps up 1-0? Such a gutsy move to drive the center lane instead of going wide. It caught the Bruins defenders by surprise and, just like that, he was in alone and buried the chance.
  • Power play zone entries tonight: not very good.
  • The Bruins pinned the Caps in repeatedly during the first period, especially when the Patrice Bergeron line was on the ice. But Braden Holtby bailed out his teammates. Also repeatedly.
  • Did the Orioles trade Manny Machado yet?
  • After the second worst scoring slump of his career, Nicklas Backstrom is doing just fine:

  • That Evgeny Kuznetsov pass on the Backstrom goal sure was something. It’s a pleasure to have number 92 on the local team and watch him do his thing so regularly.
  • It was not a pleasure to watch Madison Bowey tonight. Through 40 minutes, Bowey skated 7:07 at five-on-five. During that time, the Bruins had 17 shot attempts and the Caps had zero. OUCH.
  • Tom Wilson most definitely deserved a penalty for jumping into that little kerfuffle between Dmitry Orlov and Brad Marchand late in the second. Tom Wilson, of all people, got away with one.
  • Christian Djoos was the only man back tonight twice on a two-on-one. He defended both perfectly. Djoos added an excellent assist on the third goal.
  • Some of this was score effects, but the Bruins had the better in shot attempts tonight. Holtby was the difference maker for much of this game. Only three forwards were above 50 percent in shot attempt percentage tonight (the entire second line).
  • Alex Chiasson played like a guy that knows someone will be on nacho duty when TJ Oshie return.
  • I don’t know about you guys, but my NBCSW feed through Xfinity tonight was awful. Like, really awful.
  • Grover Cleveland is the only US president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Bruins

Headline image: Brian Babineau

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