Round-robin hockey is finally over, and thank goodness. This just isn’t good hockey. Anyway, the Caps beat the Bruins, so now the real hockey can begin.
The Caps got roundly dominated in the first period but emerged with a lead anyway, thanks to TJ Oshie’s tenacity down low against Zdeno Chara. The second period was scoreless, but Tom Wilson had a heap of hustle to beat Charlie McAvoy and make it 2-0 early in the third. Jake DeBrusk made a nice move on a broken play to get the Bruins on the board with ten minutes left, but that was it.
Caps win.
- The Caps played better overall in this final non-real game, but they still got stomped in the first period. The Bruins nearly doubled up the Caps in possession, but thanks to Oshie it didn’t matter. The Caps seemed to manage the puck a lot better in the rest of the game.
- Martin Fehervary made his postseason debut, stepping in for Radko Gudas. Fehervary spent most of his time with Michal Kempny and looked good.
- Once again, for the third straight game, Washington’s best player was Braden Holtby. He’s the only one holding onto some dignity in the clip below.
The beautiful game pic.twitter.com/w2dNBpO80Z
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) August 9, 2020
- At some point in the first period, Todd Reirden decided he had enough of the Ovechkin-Kuznetsov pair. He swapped to a top line of Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie, and it was much better.
- Unrelated to literally everything, but I just checked, and our #natriolesmagictude shirts are on sale.
- Be honest: when Tom Wilson scored, and it was a genuinely pretty goal, we all thought about this, right?
In my opinion Tom Wilson is the best goal scorer in the league
— davidpastrnak (@pastrnak96) July 29, 2020
- Ahhh, I will appreciate that for a long time.
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsBruins pic.twitter.com/jiq68uFqUB
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) August 9, 2020
This game wasn’t totally meaningless. With today’s win, the Caps have locked in their first-round opponent: Barry Trotz and his New York Islanders. The series should begin Tuesday or Wednesday. I cannot wait. LOFFS AT LAST.
