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Welcome back, king: Caps beat Bruins 4-3

By Chris Cerullo

 4 Comments

January 30, 2021 9:37 pm

The two teams at the top of the NHL’s East Division matched up for the first time this season as the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins did Saturday night battle. Which team would get the better of the other in the duel of returning 2019-20 Richard Trophy winners?

Nicklas Backstrom at the end of a shift found some energy to snipe the Caps into the lead. Trevor van Riemsdyk scored his first as a Capital to extend the lead to two. Richard Panik stood bodied home another on a man advantage.

Nick Ritchie deflected a puck home to give the Bruins their first of the night. Brad Marchand snuck home another. Charlie McAvoy tied things up with the goalie pulled.

Ovi wins it in overtime.

Caps beat Bruins 4-3!

  • The Caps kinda got owned five-on-five in the first period. Their sticks were more active, they looked faster, and they tested Vitek Vanecek over and over again for the first ten minutes or so. Play settled down later in the frame and became a bit more even but the Caps still had trouble getting any real quality looks at the Bruins net.
  • Nicklas Backstrom has five goals and 13 points through nine games to kick off this season. And he’s now doing all of this with a badass black eye. Some real Viking ish.
  • Zdeno Chara took a puck to the face killing off a Bruins power play and went down the tunnel for repairs. The Caps apparently have puck magnets in their faces this season as Justin Schultz missed this game due to taking a puck up high and Backstrom didn’t just magically summon his aforementioned black eye.

  • The second saw the Caps take a 3-0 lead so you can’t really complain too much about that. The Bruins still controlled the majority of play at even strength and Vanecek was extremely busy once again. Would be nice to see the Caps clog neutral up a little better as I felt the Bs were getting into their zone far too easily.
  • One power play for the Caps again. Refs aren’t big fans this season. Some blatant missed calls.
  • Trevor van Riemsdyk scored his first goal as a member of the Capitals. I thought TVR overall had a great game and he seems settled into the lineup now after a few games. The Caps defense depth is insane.
  • Oh…and…since when do the Caps score goals in second periods? Which team is this?

  • Read the tweet above this bullet. Now watch the goal in this post.
  • The third was boring which would have been great for the Caps if the Bruins didn’t get some late game heroics.
  • You’d love to see Carl Hagelin put home that last minute chance in regulation. You’d love to.
  • Vitek Vanecek was fantastic again and is due a ton of credit for this win. The kid is in some kind of groove.
  • I love Alex Ovechkin. Welcome back, legend.

Monday will see the Caps and Bruins war against one another yet again. There was some spiciness in this game so let’s see if that carries over.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Bruins

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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