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Bruins beat Caps 4-3

By Peter Hassett

 3 Comments

January 20, 2022 9:37 pm

The Washington Capitals shipped on up to Boston for a road date with the Bruins on Thursday night. I missed the first 90 seconds of the game because I forgot the game was streaming only.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored first with a perfect near-side wristshot. David Pastrnak responded quickly, finding an open spot in the slot for an easy goal. Pasta struck again in the second period with a breakaway on the power play, which is the part of the game where you’re not supposed to get a breakaway.

Lars Eller tied the game late in the second period, but Boston restored their lead off Evgeny Kuznetsov’s skates halfway into the third period. Scant moments later, Tom Wilson fed Nicklas Backstrom for a quick wrister from the slot. With Dowd in the penalty box, Charlie McAvoy found a gap to put Bruins ahead one last time.

Caps lose.

  • The Caps played this game without Dmitry Orlov and John Carlson, two pillars of their puck possession. Consequently, the Caps got kinda pushed around the Bruins. Compounding matters, Nick Jensen left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury.
  • Connor McMichael wasn’t facing any pressure when he iced the puck. That doesn’t seem like something he’d be doing if he weren’t under such scrutiny lately. I’d really rather see him in a Hershey Bears uniform for a bit, playing 15 minutes a night. At least he cracked eleven minutes in this one.
  • After one really good power play in the first period, the Caps played three consecutive power plays without a shot on net. So that’s a pretty bad indicator. I still like how eager Justin Schultz is to feed the Ovi Spot, but overall I’ve been eager to see the team make a change for more than a month now.
  • Here’s an alternate take for your headcanon though:

  • With his game-tying goal in the third period, Nicklas Backstrom recorded his first of the season. It was nifty. Hope he gets an extra scoop of strawberry ice cream tonight.
  • Tom Wilson hit Anton Blidh on open ice, injuring the Boston forward. Maybe it was a charge, but that’s marginal. I think it’s a very good example of how fast and heavy Tom Wilson plays the game. If another player throws that same hit, it wouldn’t get a fraction of the attention — because Wilson brings so much more momentum to it. Blidh did not return.
  • Garnet Hathaway gave Brad Marchand the business heading into the boards, and it seemed to re-aggravate Marchand’s shoulder injury.
  • Hathaway and usual-linemate Nic Dowd continue to be on a significant penalty jag. It’s costing real points now.

  • Well, that’s a weird graphic. The ESPN announcers were extra tedious today, talking at length about which goals the goalie would like to have back and which saves were timely and puck battles and other substance-free patter waltzed through their brains. All that and no replays of penalties. Anyway, I’m such a homer for Joe B and Locker now; I make no apologies. (AJ Mleczko was good.)
  • Oh also, the ESPN+ feed looks way better than the Hulu feed.

I did not like this game. See ya Saturday for the Senators.

Headline photo: ESPN Plus

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