The Washington Capitals went to battle with the Boston Bruins on Thursday night and neither team would come out unscathed. The Bruins came out the happier of the two parties as they ended the night with the full two points in a 4-3 victory.
Special teams tend to matter a lot.
- The Capitals never looked great in this game. There was zero rhythm to their play and Boston seemingly had the puck for 85-percent of the three periods. The third period in particular was quite terrible for the Caps as they gave up eight high danger chances at five-on-five and created exactly zero of their own. They would have absolutely been lucky to come out of TD Garden with a point.
- Yet still it was only a one-goal loss. Do you know what could have prevented that one-goal loss? The power play working at any semblance of an NHL level. They went three power play opportunities in a row without recording a shot. Inexcusably god awful. Something has got to give. New eyes are needed.
- It has not been a great couple of weeks for that Nic Dowd centered line. The number of absolutely terrible penalties both Dowd and Garnet Hathaway have taken at some of the most inopportune times in games is unacceptable. If you’re double shifting that line late in games you cant have them doing that. The Bruins scored with 45 seconds left in regulation with Dowd in the box late. Hathaway also went out of his way to sit in the box for no reason earlier in the game.
Tom Wilson recorded the primary assist on Backstrom's goal, his 17th assist of the season. Wilson's 29 points (12g, 17a) in 37 games this season rank fourth on the Capitals.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 21, 2022
- I don’t put a whole lot of this on Vitek Vanecek at all. His team was out-shot 34 to 17 in front of him. They gave up the aforementioned eight high danger chances in the third period and even accidentally scored on him. He did more than enough with his 30 saves to keep his team within reach of at least a point.
- Really liked what I saw from both Brett Leason and Aliaksei Protas. That is becoming a trend. Leason tied Alex Ovechkin for the team in shots on goal with three and recorded two individual scoring chances. I think the play of these two and guys like Connor McMichael and Martin Fehervary give the Caps a chance to do something bigger in the trade market this season.
- I personally think the Caps need to add another top-six scoring talent as well as a goaltender. I use CapFriendly’s wonderful trade machine to test out some theories. You should as well and post your findings in the comments!
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
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