The Washington Capitals could not get the job done in the second half of a back-to-back with travel against the Boston Bruins. A midgame surge wasn’t enough as the Bs downed the Caps 6-3.
The Caps outshot the Bruins 33 to 28 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 36 to 27.
- I don’t really think the Caps were “bad” in this game. They were just the team playing on no rest after flying to Boston…after playing a noon game the day before…to then play another noon game…which had to be weird for the players and is something that I think the NHL should probably look to avoid scheduling. The Caps actually had the better chances at five-on-five in this game if you follow the math, but they could not buy a save and could not finish the majority of those chances.
- You’re gonna want a save from Vitek Vanecek on about two or three of those goals against. The Bruins were getting those saves from Tuuka Rask all game long and the Caps were seeing similar chances end up in the back of their net. Vanecek would get burnt for five goals on 27 shots. I’ve been in the “Ilya Samsonov should get a string of starts” club for a good bit now and if he’s healthy I think they really need to get on that.
- Anthony Mantha scored again and now has a goal in all four games since joining the Caps from Detroit. That’s the first time that has happened for a new acquisition in franchise history and Mantha actually scored a goal in his last game as a member of the Red Wings so he’s riding a five-game goal streak right now.
Oshie now ranks tied for second in the NHL in power play goals (Kyle Connor, Leon Draisaitl, Steven Stamkos: 10). https://t.co/9rA4ktLj8E
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 18, 2021
- I think the Garnet Hathaway five-minute major and game misconduct was the wrong call. I think that hit is totally avoidable and he surely deserved a two-minute boarding penalty, but I also think the refs used the unfortunate end result as justification instead of just watching the actual play. The Tom Wilson thing shouldn’t even be discussed so I’m not gonna humor it. Boston media though…woof.
- The Caps were getting good games from a bunch of guys like Daniel Sprong, Mantha, Lars Eller, etc. but this game just could not stay at five-on-five long enough for them to get a true grip on things. Nine Caps players ended up playing less than ten minutes at five-on-five and Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov each only played 10:12.
- The New York Islanders have a game in hand on the Caps and are two points back of tying for the division lead again. The Caps next three games all come against that Islanders team. Little bit of an important series right there.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
RMNB Coverage of Caps at Bruins
Headline photo: KP8 Design
