The Washington Capitals started their holiday break a bit earlier than planned, falling on the road to the Boston Bruins in a mess of a game.
Jake DeBrusk, Brad Marchand, Anders Bjork, Patrice Bergeron, and Charlie Coyle all scored for the Bruins before the Caps could crack Tuukka Rask. Alex Ovechkin finally did just that in the second period. Lars Eller tipped a shot by Jakub Vrana to narrow the gap a bit, but then David Krecji added an empty-netter. Garnet Hathaway exploited some lazy defense to tack on another goal, but then Kuznetsov got caught playing bad D, allowing Bergeron to make it 7.
Caps lose.
- Braden Holtby was mercifully pulled after twenty minutes. After a long streak of destroying the Bruins, Holtby was due for a stinker.
- Once in their hole, the Caps dominated the second period, controlling 84 percent of the five-on-five shot attempts but having only Ovi’s goal to show for it. Tuukka Rask was very good.
- During that eventful-but-unfruitful second period, Todd Reirden effectively benched Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jakub Vrana. This is a snippet of a shift chart from Nat Stat Trick; the white blocks are all the ice time they didn’t play:
- Dmitry Orlov almost got busted for an own-goal. Luckily, the refs had blown the play dead before the puck crossed the goal line.
- After Braden Holtby got pulled, the Bs didn’t seem too motivated. They put just four shots on Ilya Samsonov. So Sammy’s save percentage on the night was only barely better than Braden’s.
- Late in the game, birthday boy TJ Oshie put a brutal hit on Charlie McAvoy. We’ll have to wait to see if he’s okay.
- Aside from a minor brawl in the final ten minutes, both teams played the third period like they had a turkey to spatchcock and then dry-brine in the fridge for 36 hours prior to oiling well and cooking at 350 for 90 minutes, rotating halfway through. Speaking of, let’s wrap this up.
Brown for the Bruins #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsBruins pic.twitter.com/YIHX2fLZ5n
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) December 24, 2019
Friends: however you mark the occasion, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I hope you enter the new year with a renewed well of compassion and kindness, and I hope we will one day stand side by side in solidarity to agree one and for all that, actually, Jeremy Roenick always sucked.
