Home / Game Recap / Slump’s over: Caps beat Bruins 4-3 (SO)

Slump’s over: Caps beat Bruins 4-3 (SO)

By Peter Hassett

 0 Comment

December 28, 2017 11:27 pm

Despite one of their worst starts of the season, the Washington Capitals have beat the Boston Bruins again. Somehow.

The Caps just weren’t ready for puck drop. Before 140 seconds had passed, Boston was up 2-0 with goals by David Backes and Noel Acciari. Washington looked in deep trouble until Lars Eller struck in the second, followed 90 seconds later by an Ovi Shot from the Ovi Spot™. David Backes got his second goal of the night to put the Bruins ahead in the third, but Brett Connolly and Tom Wilson re-tied it with tremendous effort in and around the paint. Overtime refused to give us a decision, so here come…

Shootout bullets!

  • Oshie did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Marchand did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Kuznetsov did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Pastrnak did not put the biscuit in the basket.
  • Ovechkin puts the biscuit in the basket! (Finally.)
  • Nash did not put the biscuit in the basket! CAPS WIN!!!

Caps beat the Bruins 4-3 in the shootout.

  • The Bruins had nine attempts and two goals before the Caps did anything a statistician would consider offense. It was just awful play by the middle-six forwards and the defense (Carlson for one, Bowey for one, Brooks Orpik for both) that let Boston dominate play and own the scoreboard early.
  • Orpik, a minus-two rating on his very first shift, nearly injured teammate Andre Burakovsky on his second shift. He checked through Tim Schaller, sending Andre to the ice. Then he fought Sean Kuraly. So much happened in Orpik’s first 110 seconds on the ice, he sat out the next five minutes in the penalty box.
  • With nothing working for the Caps, Barry Trotz shuffled his lines late in the first period. Our new forwards looked like this, via the Post’s intrepid Isabelle Khurshudyan.

  • Also, and this has nothing to do with the hockey game, I want you to see this tweet from Izzy too.

  • Dilly, dilly.
  • So Tom Wilson was demoted and the 8-19-77 line was restored. TJ Oshie committed a slash on his first shift on the top line. He ended the night with four penalty minutes, plus he committed a turnover before Backes’ go-ahead goal and duffed his shootout attempt, plus he spoke to Pierre Maguire, so all around a real bad night for him, despite his team-high six shots on goal.
  • Wilson did fine in his role on the third line, helping score a gritty goal from the crease that probably annoy every goalie in the league. I wonder if he’ll be back on the top line on Saturday.
  • On December 22, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a goal four minutes and thirty-two seconds into the third period of the Arizona game. After that, 177 minutes and thirty-two seconds passed without a single Caps goal until Lars Eller slayed the drought.
  • That 177.53 minutes was shy of the franchise-record 181.25 scoreless minutes, as reported by Elias by way of Tom Gulitti. I’m no math whiz, but I think the Caps were like four or five shifts from setting a miserable franchise record there.
  • The “ultimate edition” of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was 183 minutes long and was somehow more watchable than the Caps lately. The periods between those bookend goals included 46 scoring chances for the Caps during 5-on-5 and 62 for their opponents. Which reminds me: Washington’s goalies have a hard job.
  • Once Eller struck, Alex Ovechkin followed with ease. John Carlson, who was brutal during 5-on-5 play, fed Ovi a great setup. Ovechkin sits at 24 goals, again tied with Tampa’s Nikita
    Kucherov.
  • Five of the last six Caps games have gone to overtime. That’s a good way to get points out of a mediocre run in late December. That and having dudes like Braden Holtby on your roster.

No Joe B suit tonight, but here’s this, whatever this is.

Well, the three-game losing streak is over, and the Caps showed some life in the back half. I’ll take it! Have a great night. If I don’t see you again in Twenty Semin-teen, I hope you have a great Twenty Nate-teen.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Bruins

Headline photo: Patrick McDermott

,