The Washington Capitals completed their road calendar with a visit to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night. Someone got hurt again.
After a scoreless first period, Brad Marchand of all people scored a power-play goal, finishing off some clean passing by Boston. Tyler Bertuzzi got a rebound from the low slot to make it 2-0, but Nick Jensen scored a rush goal off Charlie MacAvoy’s body to get Washington on the board.
Tomas Nosek got a gift of a failed clear in the third. Charlie Lindgren left the game with injury, then Tom Wilson recorded his 12th goal in his abbreviated season. Nosek sent a clean pass to Garnet Hathaway to make it 4-2 Boston. Jake DeBrusk got the empty-netter.
Caps lose. They finish the season at home on Thursday.
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Chris is on recap duty for the finale on Thursday, so I have a parting thought for you now.
This game was meaningless. The Capitals had already been eliminated from playoff contention, so this game didn’t matter. But it was meaningless even before that. Because Hockey is a frivolity. It’s a silly distraction from the real world, where Real Things Really Matter. Hockey doesn’t matter. It holds no inherent meaning.
Whatever meaning hockey has is the meaning you have brought to it. Hockey as a cultural experience is like mass psychosis, where we’re all hallucinating that it has certain values and qualities and stakes and drama. That hallucination mediates how people think about and talk about the sport, but you don’t have to go with the flow. Even in a supposedly meaningless game, you are empowered to make hockey mean to you whatever you want.
Yeah, it was a pounding loss at the sputtering end of a cursed season, but it was also a few dozen star athletes in peak physical condition putting on a show for thousands of people. Nick Jensen scored a goal on a silly deflection, and Charlie Lindgren made a cartoonish save without a glove on. If you’re a non-partisan, you got a look at a truly elite hockey team that is about to test their mettle in the sport’s big tournament. And if you just like the telecast, you got another hour with your friends, Joe B and Locker.
You get to decide what hockey means to you, and to me this was time well spent. See you next time. 🌹
Headline photo: @ryanalsot
RMNB is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
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