The Washington Capitals had a successful Opening Night dress rehearsal against the Boston Bruins on Friday night. After going up 2-0 early in the second period, the Capitals eventually ceded their lead to the Bruins, but ultimately proved victors through an overtime power-play goal from Jordan Kyrou.
Outside of Kyrou’s game-winning tally, the Capitals also got goals from Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson. Strome, Wilson, and Pierre-Luc Dubois led the way for the team with two points each in the win.
Goals
Dylan Strome goal (via @Capitals/X)
Tom Wilson goal (via @Capitals/X)
Jordan Kyrou goal (via @Capitals/X)
Observations
- The Capitals had a lot of the puck in this game, but I really didn’t love how they looked defensively, especially when the Bruins were attacking off the rush. While Washington finished ahead in five-on-five shot attempts (45-39), they gave up way more quality than they produced in scoring chances, where the Bruins led 25-16, and high-danger chances, where Boston led 12-6. Timothy Liljegren shouldn’t look like the best defenseman on the team in any game. That’s gotta change.
- While I didn’t love a ton of the even-strength play, I can’t say anything bad about the power play. They went 3-for-3 while up a man, including netting the game-winner, and just looked much more on top of things in the zone and with their entries. There seems to be a new onus on movement and urgency with the puck that is a sight for sore eyes compared to the last couple of years.
- Logan Thompson made 20 saves on the 22 shots he faced. There were a few really tough saves mixed in there, and he really could not have done anything about the two goals that he allowed. The big question this season will be how many games Thompson is given by head coach Spencer Carbery after featuring in 58 last year.
- I’m a little wary of what we’ve seen from the current line combinations, as there doesn’t seem to be a whole ton of chemistry brewing out there. There are a lot of new faces on this team, so it might just take a while to gel more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Carbery has a quick trigger finger on his line blender if things don’t look great out of the gate.
- The Capitals called a timeout after a puck was potentially played with a high stick before Boston’s game-tying goal. Normally, that would likely lead them to challenge the play, but I think it was a good idea not to this time, as there didn’t seem to be any conclusive evidence. Carbery also mentioned postgame that the current Capital One Arena makeover didn’t let the coaches get all of the angles they wanted on their iPads on the bench. Hopefully, that’s rectified soon.
- Jordan Kyrou looked tremendous for his new team, scoring the bullet game-winner in overtime and just generally using his speed to create offense the whole game. He finished with his goal, three shots, five shot attempts, and two individual scoring chances.
