Both teams played in Canada last night (Boston won 4-2 at Toronto and Washington lost 5-2 in Montreal) so it was impressive that they still cobbled together such an entertaining playoff-like contest that was chock full of hits, emotion and incredible skill. The Bruins actually led two different times as Charlie Coyle gave them a 1-0 advantage at 11:32 of the first period after a beautiful feed from behind the net by Danton Heinen. Coyle put a one-timer low past Braden Holtby (21 saves, 10-1-3) for his fourth goal of the season with Charlie McAvoy getting the secondary assist. The Caps tied it less than three minutes later though as Travis Boyd (recalled from Hershey ((AHL)) earlier in the day) scored his first goal of the season at 14:27. He tipped in John Carlson's shot from the point with Brendan Leipsic picking up the second assist. Can we talk about how ridiculous that Carlson has been in 2019/2020? That was his NHL-leading 24th helper of the season which also extended his point streak to six games (1 goal, 8 assists). He has 19 points in his last 19 games (8 goals, 11 assists). Where did this offensive explosion come from? He was always known as a physical, steady defensive defenseman and now this which is mind-blowing.
What this game lacked in total goals, it more than made up for in sheer viewing pleasure. The B's went ahead at 3:30 of the second period after David Pastrnak put in a rebound from McAvoy's one-timer that somehow missed the net but fortuitously bounced right to the leading goal-scorer in the NHL (17 and counting). David Krejci had the second assist since he had passed up a great shooting opportunity of his own to feed McAvoy bombing down the slot. Against the run of play, Boston almost took a 3-1 lead when Pasta tipped Matt Grzelcyk's shot but it went off the post. For shits and giggles, Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson ran into each other in Washington's defensive zone (luckily, they were both fine). The scoreboard said Boston 2, Washington 1 after two periods completed despite the fact that the Caps had doubled the Black and Gold in shots on goal (30-15).
The B's had 1:45 left of a power play to start the third but they couldn't convert (their #2 ranked PP was 0-for-3 on the night). Wilson crushed Chris Wagner with a clean open ice hit and on the other end, McAvoy made an incredible recovery play defensively to knock the puck away from Ovi. Krejci tipped a shot from McAvoy that Holtby just got a piece of and the puck trickled wide of the net. Zdeno Chara and Wilson got matching roughing penalties because someone had to settle Washington's intimidating enforcer down just a bit. Coyle had a partial breakaway but Holtby stopped his backhander. Halak matched that by robbing Ovechkin and Carlson's shot hit the crossbar. With an extra skater on the ice, Washington finally tied it up with 58.6 seconds left in regulation. Oshie one-timed a pass from Kuznetsov (4 goals, 7 assists in last 7 games) from point blank range on Halak. Nicklas Backstrom had the second assist on Oshie's 10th goal of the season.
For the third time in four games (all at the Garden), the Bruins had to decide the outcome in overtime or a shootout which is never a good thing for them. Kuznetsov was stopped on a breakaway and Halak also made a good save on Jakub Vrana as Washington outshot Boston 3-2 in overtime (44-23 for the game!). Once it went to a shootout, you might as well have turned off the lights at the Garden. Boston dropped to 0-4 in shootouts this season while Washington improved to 3-1. The B's could only manage one measly goal in five attempts (Coyle in Round 1), making them 2-for-16 this season which seems almost impossibly bad. Backstrom tied it in the third round and Vrana won it in the fifth round. As he did all game long, Halak deserved better after he made a showstopping save on Ovechkin to start Round four.
With Bergeron temporarily on the shelf and Torey Krug placed on IR this afternoon, the beat up Bruins understandably won't practice tomorrow. They will be back to work at Warrior Arena on Monday before they travel to New Jersey for Tuesday's (7, NESN) meeting with the Devils (7-8-4). For awhile, the B's have owned the Devils so that's a team you want to see on their schedule this week. Ditto for the Sabres (10-6-3) who have come crashing back to Earth after an unbelievable start and they make their first visit of the season here on Thursday (7, NESN). Rounding out the manageable week for the Bruins is the lowly Wild (7-11-2) who visit on Saturday night (7, NESN). They are the worst team in the Western Conference and tied with Detroit (7-12-2) for the fewest points in the NHL. I'm not predicting three easy wins but at least on paper, the B's couldn't ask for three more favorable opponents to see when they have so many unproven guys in the lineup.
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