Photo: Twitter/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals fell to the Boston Bruins, 5-2, Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. The Capitals gave up three goals in the first period and a half before scoring the next two goals to draw within one. Boston added a late tally and an empty net goal for the 5-2 win.
STARTING LINES AND PAIRS
Darcy Kuemper made his first start in goal for the Capitals. Linus Ullmark got the start between the pipes for the Bruins. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Connor Brown
Aliaksei Protas – Dylan Strome – Anthony Mantha
Marcus Johansson – Lars Eller – T.J. Oshie
Conor Sheary – Nic Dowd – Garnet Hathaway
Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov – Nick Jensen
Erik Gustafsson – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Scratches: Connor McMichael, Joe Snively and Matt Irwin.
FIRST PERIOD
The Bruins opened the scoring with a power play goal from Patrice Bergeron (1) at 7:58 of the first frame. David Pastrnak (1) and David Krejci (1) had the helpers. The goal was Bergeron’s 5th career tally on opening night.
Patrice Bergeron scores the first goal of the Bruins’ 2022-23 season: pic.twitter.com/hzsuG1PMP9
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 12, 2022
The Bruins made it 2-0 late in the first frame with a tally from David Pastrnak (1) at 15:03 of the frame. David Krejci (2) and Connor Clifton (1) had the assists.
Pastrnak is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/PtrZ7MaMqK
— Ben Jones (@BenJonesNorth) October 12, 2022
The first frame came to a close with the Bruins holding on to a 2-0 lead. Boston led in shots on goal 15-12. 5v5 shot attempts were tied 16-16. The Bruins led in scoring chances 8-7 and xGF .74 to .66. The Bruins the led battle at the dot 69-31%.
SECOND PERIOD
The Bruins made it 3-0 early in the middle frame with a score from Taylor Hall (1) at 6:14 of the period. David Pastrnak (2) and Mike Reilly (1) had the assists.
Taylor Hall joins the scoring party. #NHLBruins | #NHL
— Jamie Gatlin (@JamieGatlin17) October 13, 2022
The Capitals finally got on the scoreboard with a goal from Anthony Mantha (1) at 7:34 of the middle frame. Dylan Strome (1) and Erik Gustafsson (1) had the helpers.
Caps get one back thanks to Anthony Mantha (+330 to score a goal) 🚨pic.twitter.com/OzTSrbFnMb
— Caesars Sportsbook (@CaesarsSports) October 13, 2022
Conor Sheary made it 3-2 at 12:43 of the middle frame. He was assisted by Nic Dowd (1).
2-3 #ALLCAPS sheary. pic.twitter.com/nne2jypPhv
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) October 13, 2022
The second period would conclude with the Bruins hanging on to the 3-2 lead. Caps led in shots on goal 10-8 in the 2nd frame. Bruins led 23-22 after two periods. Caps led in shot attempts 18-12 in the 2nd period and lead 34-28 after two periods. Bruins lead in xGF 1.46 to 1.36. Scoring chances tied 15-15. Caps lead in high danger chances 6-5.
THIRD PERIOD
The Bruins added a late goal from David Krejci (2) at 16:17 to make it 4-2. David Pastrnak (3) and Pavel Zacha (1) had the helpers.
KREJCI. IS. BACK. 😍 #NHLFaceOff
📺: @NHL_On_TNT ➡️ https://t.co/LaJpv7c3yx #NHLonTNT pic.twitter.com/KfG63g7GVU
— NHL (@NHL) October 13, 2022
The Bruins added an empty net goal for the 5-2 final. The Capitals led in shot attempts 47-41 for the game. The Bruins led in xGF 2.06 to 1.97. The Bruins led in scoring chances 24-18 and high danger chances 10-7.
SHAVINGS
- John Carlson was -4.
- Capitals led in turnovers 17-8.
- Martin Fehervary led all Capitals in hits with 10, Alex Ovechkin had 9.
- Bruins led in faceoffs 63-37%.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov played in his 600th NHL game.
- Darcy Kuemper played in his 300th career NHL game.
The Capitals now head north of the border in advance of their tilt against Ilya Samsonov and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night. Puck drop is set for 7PM.
By Jon Sorensen
We sucked on faceoffs. 37%. PP was faster but ineffective. A lot of defensive breakdowns. Was not impressed with Kuemper. I assume Lindgren will get the backend of the double header? Dug ourselves into a hole and could not climb out. Familiar story.
I think that about sums it up. You did it in a lot less words. 👊😁
what were the parking lots at the old cap centre? i remember liberty bell and stars and stripes…i feel like there was 1 or two other Caps themed lots?
Liberty Bell, Stars and Stripes. Capitol. And Eagle.
https://novacapsfans.com/2022/10/04/midday-breakaway-snubbed-for-the-stubs/
Makes you wonder what the coaching staff was doing this off-season. Nothing changed. Maybe it wasn’t all Sammy and VV. Defensive system does not work with this group. Way to many shots.
not just too many shots but too many good shots. I don’t know if they met the NHL’s definition of high quality chances but they sure looked high quality to me. We were out of position over and over and over.
still got problems on the PP, on D….they miss Nicky’s calm puck handling on the half wall, they miss Willy opening up things for Kuzy and Ovi
Carlson was a -4 😬
ouch.
He basically stood still and watched the goals be scored.
But they knew Nicky and Willy would be out until Thanksgiving. This isn’t Osh getting hurt in the first period, this was known.
Carlson was god awful. What an albatross of a contract that has turned out to be. Can he be put on LTIR for being a lazy moron?
Laviolette sounds pretty confident he had the team ready to play. I beg to differ. Thought all aspects of their game were flat.
John “Cement Skates” Carlson -4 ….nuff said
Not really impressed by anything the Caps did tonight.
Bruins should be better than last year with Krejci back at 2nd line center. They did this without 2 of there 3 best players also in Marchand and McAvoy. Having Wilson back should help the Caps a little also. I think the Caps need another elite talent to make them a serious playoff team. I’m afraid we will see the same thing this year as the last few sadly…
Good to hear from you again, Marky. We were worried about you. 😁
novafyre’s summary was spot on. Would add that speed matters…and B’s were clearly faster than us. I believe the age of our team does matter, and becomes more obvious when some of our best skaters are either on LTIR or healthy scratches. Lack of effective forechecking also hurt and is one of the key reasons the B’s got so many high danger opportunities (everyone likes to blame the D, but some of the fault lies with an unwillingness/inability to forecheck consistently).