Washington Capitals decided that winning the games against Boston Bruins by three goals is too much work to maintain … and this time it cost them. Caps moved up 3-0 and let the Bruins respond with five unanswered goals, leading to a regulatory defeat for the first time this season.
The Bruins overcame Caps 33 to 26 and beat them in five against five by 50 to 33.
- Oh boy. Do you want an intensive course on how to explode an advantage that you achieved in the third period? Look no further than the performance of Caps in this game. In the third, they were defeated in five against five by 25 to 6, by 15 to 4 and the score by 9 to 1. This is what we call ‘turtle’ here in the business and when you do it against teams as good as the Boston Bruins … well, you already know the result. Yes, this is the first loss in regulation. Yes, they still have a zillion ranking points. Yes, the Bruins are one of the best teams in the league. But … but this is becoming a bit of a trend as far as things can become a “trend” in a sample of ten games. We expect the numbers of five against five to suffer a blow when that team is winning, as this is what we call “scoring effects” (which increase / decrease based on the size of the leadership), but we also hope that our favorite team deny it to the best of your ability and do not feed directly on it, which they did in this game.
- The first line was awful. They seemed disinterested, disorganized, slow … old. With Alex Ovechkin on the ice in five against five, Caps managed 29 percent of the attempts at kicking, had a chance difference of minus five and created zero chances of high danger (the Bruins created two). Not to mention that Tom Wilson came out of the ice with ten minutes remaining in regulation fighting Trent Frederic who has a grand total of one point in the NHL in 26 games played. You are not being trained by Adam Oates and having eight minutes of ice a night, Tom. It’s not a smart decision. You are very important to the success of this team.
- The Brenden Dillon and Trevor van Riemsdyk The pairing was the worst of Caps’ three defensive units. They played many of their turns with the first row, so you can just extrapolate those numbers that I gave you when Ovi was on the ice five against five for these two. I really hope that Justin Schultz will be back soon. This is a phrase I never thought I would write.
Jakub Vrana scored Carlson’s only assist on goal, his second assist tonight and his first multi-assist game of the season.
– CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 2, 2021
- TJ Oshie somehow managed to be a minus three in the night in a game that I thought his line was probably the Caps’ best offensive. I have said this before, but TJ legitimately took center stage very well and we all know about the defensive issues that Evgeny Kuznetsov have. I don’t think it will last, but maybe it should? We would need a larger sample to be sure and I don’t think we can. I could even see it ending in the next game, as NHL coaches tend to think more / less is still one thing.
- I wait Jakub Vrana won his way back to the top six, as he is one of the best players in Caps and I think he was one of the only ones who had energy throughout this game. You can only demote a player to “send a message” so many times before it just doesn’t work. Ask Andre Burakovsky.
- It’s probably time to Vitek Vanecek to take a break. The young man faced many shots and made all matches since Ilya Samsonov was withdrawn by COVID protocols.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
RMNB coverage of Caps vs Bruins
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington