Backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak (18 saves, 13-7-2) got the start despite the fact that Tuukka Rask (12-8-2) has won his last four outings and is finally playing like the better option that he should be. Boston had a much better performance than the 7-0 Opening Night (Oct. 3) beating that they took in D.C. Still, when you nearly double your opponent in shots on goal (41-22) and win almost twice as many faceoffs (42-22), how do you lose? Halak was not at his best but neither were his teammates that managed to somehow turn a whopping 74 shot attempts (41 on goal, 18 blocked, 15 missed net) into just two goals. I'm no Will Hunting but that's not good enough. Haha sorry, had to do it.
On the other side, the best players from the Capitals all showed up. Captain Alex Ovechkin had two goals, Nicklas Backstrom added another and goaltender Braden Holtby (39 saves, 17-10-2) looked nothing like the guy that's had an uneven first half of 2018/19. In the process of standing on his head against the black and gold, Holtby improved to 16-2-0 in his career against them. The Bruins gave up an early first goal, never led and each time that they scored, they allowed a quick and painful rebuttal by the Capitals.
22-year-old left wing Jakub Vrana is one of the young players that is stepping up for the Caps. He's already reached a career-high in goals (15) and he scored on a breakaway at 6:38 of the first period. T.J. Oshie had the lone assist as Washington led 1-0 after the first despite getting mostly dominated (outshot 17-5). Ryan Donato has been scuffling for much of this season in Boston so it was encouraging to see him score on a beautiful snipe over Holtby's glove at 14:11 of the second period. Torey Krug and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson had the assists on Donato's sixth goal of the season. While the PA announcer was talking about that tally, Washington made it a moot point as Ovi slipped loose in the slot 39 seconds later for his NHL-best 31st goal of the season. The NHL's public enemy No. 1 Tom Wilson had the lone assist on the backbreaking goal.
Boston fell to 1-12-1 when they trail after two periods so when they were down 2-1 headed into the third, we should have already given any fleeting hope that we had left. The B's had 1:53 of a power play that carried over from the second but they couldn't convert on that one. Luckily the Capitals were called for too many men on the ice (served by Ovechkin) shortly after that and the Bruins' No. 3 ranked power play finally cashed in on its fifth opportunity. David Krejci blasted a shot by Holtby at 4:37 that tied it at two apiece. Danton Heinen and David Backes provided the assists on Krejci's eighth goal of the season. This time it took the Caps just over a minute (1:09) to respond. Backstrom beat Halak with a low-hard shot from some distance that truthfully, he would stop when he was on top of his game (he admitted as much afterwards). Oshie and rookie defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler had the assists on Backstrom's 11th goal of the season.
Halak actually made a bunch of quality saves after that to keep the Bruins in it but they never really tested Holtby too much more. Ovechkin ended any suspense that remained as he put in an empty-netter from a faceoff circle in his own defensive zone at 18:25. The good news for the Bruins is that they won't see the Capitals again unless it is in the postseason this spring. We'll worry about that if and when it occurs.
For now, they're onto Toronto (28-13-2) on Saturday night (7, NESN). It's a huge Atlantic Division showdown and the last meeting of the regular season for those Original Six rivals. The B's lead it 2-1 but Toronto is four points ahead of them for second-place and they have a game in hand. Rask will be back in net and it looks like defenseman Charlie McAvoy could make another return from his latest mysterious injury (foot). It's a difficult few days as they come back here to host Montreal (23-17-5) on Monday (7:30, NESN).
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