Washington dealt another blow to its already-slim postseason chances Saturday afternoon, falling to Boston in a marathon shootout.
The opening frame produced no goals. Then, with a minute and 15 seconds gone in the middle period, Matt Roy opened the scoring with his second tally of the year. A full ten minutes after that, Charlie McAvoy beat Logan Thompson while screened in front.
Knotted at a goal apiece as the final period began, the Capitals reclaimed the lead when Rasmus Sandin connected from distance. McAvoy then notched his second marker of the evening, tipping a Pavel Zacha drive to square the contest when regulation had ten minutes remaining.
Overtime settled nothing and left everyone queasy. On to the shootout rundown.
- Dubois — no goal.
- Eyssimont — no goal. Off the iron.
- Leonard — no goal. Off the iron.
- Pastrnak — no goal.
- Strome — no goal.
- Arvidsson — no goal.
- Beauvillier — no goal. Pinged the post once more.
- Mittelstadt — no goal.
- McMichael — no goal.
- McAvoy — no goal.
- Ovechkin — no goal.
- Zacha — no goal.
- have you gotten around to blood meridian yet
- Chychrun — no goal.
- Geekie — no goal.
- Frank — no goal.
- Lohrei — no goal.
- Protas — no goal.
- Minten — buried it. Oh god.
And that's the loss.
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- Through the early portion of the night, Washington looked sharp. Boston may sit higher in the table, yet at even strength they're the inferior squad. Following a patchy outing up in Buffalo, plenty of what the Caps produced here appealed to me — within the two blue lines, anyway, and confined to those opening 40 minutes.
- The trouble was that none of those looks found twine. Netminder Jeremy Swayman denied Rasmus Sandin on three separate tries before the defenseman finally broke through with that key marker. It's a familiar refrain by now: scoring remains a chronic problem for the Caps, kind of like your dating life in high school.
- During the final stanza, the Bruins dialed up their aggression dramatically and completely turned the tide. Shift after shift, the line of Arvidsson, Zacha, and Mittelstadt kept attacking. Boston churned out something like three shot attempts to each one Washington could manage.
- Hendrix Lapierre's post-deadline usage trial rolls on. Slotting in beside Dubois and Wilson on Washington's top forward trio, he picked up a secondary helper on Roy's goal.
- Pretty pumped about this; drop your guesses below on when it'll happen. Hook the youngster up with a credential, Tony P's digits, and a partner on the payroll of some defense firm.
Cole Hutson now free to sign NHL contract and join Capitals after Boston University eliminated from Hockey East tournament
- Roy, hardly a noted finisher, lit the lamp for the second time all year. His most recent prior goal had come on November 17, 2025, with the one preceding that dating clear back to March. A fun aside: Sandin and Roy are both defensemen by trade.
- I make a point of not leaning too hard on the bit where you parcel out which goals belong on the goaltender, but everyone can see that neither of McAvoy's pucks should be pinned on Logan Thompson. His first glimpse of each came when he was digging them out from behind him.
- During a third-period Washington man advantage, Boston escaped a delay-of-game call for flipping the puck over the glass. The Caps failed to capitalize — truthfully they hardly tested the Bruins' cage until that opportunity had almost expired. It's frankly embarrassing how little effort the team has put into mending this unit over the entire campaign.
- Thanks to the kill and a shortage of whistles, the three-on-three extra session always had a minimum of seven players out there skating.
sighwhat do you think joe is wearing right now — RMNB (@rmnb.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T19:14:26.239Z
They really should have let Ovi take two attempts in the skills competition.
This outcome barely shifted the Caps' postseason math, already pegged beneath 20 percent no matter how you crunched it. A flicker of hope lingers, but a pair of priests, one old and one young, are loitering out in the corridor.
Ottawa visits Wednesday. As best anyone knows, just six home dates remain in the Ovechkin chapter.