The Washington Capitals’ last game before their extended All-Star plus bye week break came on January 31. They opened post that break on the road against a Boston Bruins team that has run roughshod over the entire league, especially in their own building.

The Caps didn’t listen to any of that nonsense. They came out as 2-1 victors in a real fight.

• If you ever needed a game to demonstrate how important rest is to an NHL team, especially an older one, this is your game. The Caps not only beat the Bruins on the road which has been near impossible this season for other teams…but they also controlled the majority of the game against them at five-on-five. The road warriors finished with positive differentials in shot attempts (+2), scoring chances (+2), and high-danger chances (+3). They led for the entirety of the game after Nicklas Backstrom scored at the 6:28 mark of the first period. Impressive.
• Really fantastic outing from Darcy Kuemper because he didn’t exactly get a ton of run support. He made 27 stops on 28 shots and was particularly good during the Bruins’ second-period push. Good to see him so dominant after a very shaky February that saw him go just 5-5 with a 2.94 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
• Congrats to head coach Peter Laviolette as he was behind the bench for his 1,402nd career game, passing Ron Wilson (1,401) for the 11th-most games coached in NHL history. His team pitched a pretty brilliant game in honor of the achievement.

The Capitals have allowed fewer than 30 shots in seven of their last 10 games.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 11, 2023

• There were 12 separate minor penalties called in this game. That included Alex Ovechkin getting called for high-sticking Brad Marchand because the latter was in the process of slew-footing the former. Wonderful.
• Five-for-five on the penalty kill. Absolutely massive.
• There really isn’t a player that I can pick out that had an extraordinarily good or bad game. Everyone on the Caps was just very solid. This was just Boston’s second regulation loss on home ice this season. They are 22-2-3 inside TD Garden.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.