Final, Capitals Win 4-0
The Bruins’ (1-2-0) offense couldn’t get going Saturday night, and it has now produced just three goals in the first three games of the regular season. The bottom-six forwards have provided almost no scoring production, which has made Boston a two-line team.
Special teams was again an issue for the Bruins on Saturday night. The power play was 0-for-4 and even had trouble entering the attacking zone cleanly at times. The penalty kill gave up two goals, one scored by Alex Ovechkin and the other by Mike Green. The Bruins return to TD Garden on Monday afternoon for a matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.
Stay tuned to NESN.com for postgame coverage and highlights of Bruins-Capitals.
Third Period, 18:46, 4-0 Capitals: John Carlson has made it 4-0 with his first goal of the season. He also has an assist.
Third Period, 16:23, 3-0 Capitals: Milan Lucic takes a huge hit from Mike Green. The B’s forward then tried to fight the Capitals D-man, but Green didn’t want to drop the gloves. Lucic took a minor penalty for cross checking as a result, in addition to a 10-minute game misconduct. Washington is returning to the power play.
Third Period, 6:44, 3-0 Capitals: Carl Soderberg has a great scoring chance, but he’s unable to finish his deke as Braden Holtby breaks it up.
GIF via Twitter/@MyRegularFace
Third Period, 6:18, 3-0 Capitals:
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Third Period, 3:33, 3-0 Capitals: Adam McQuaid stops Alex Ovechkin from netting a hat trick.
GIF via Twitter/@MyRegularFace
Third Period, 1:08, 3-0 Capitals: Washington kills off the penalty and we’re back to even strength.
Third Period, 0:01, 3-0 Capitals: We’re underway for the final 20 minutes of regulation. Boston has 1:07 left on its power play.
End of Second Period, 3-0 Capitals
Stats
Shots: 22-16 Bruins
Faceoffs: 26-16 Bruins
Hits: 22-14 Bruins
Special Teams: BOS 0-4, WSH 2-3
Goals
1st Period
Alex Ovechkin PPG (1), assisted by Nicklas Backstrom (1) and John Carlson (1)
Alex Ovechkin (2), assisted by Nicklas Backstrom (2) and Karl Alzner (1)
Second Period
Mike Green PPG (1), assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov (1) and Andre Burakovsky (1)
Second Period, 19:06, Capitals 3-0: Boston is headed back to the power play. Jason Chimera has taken a holding penalty.
Second Period, 15:40, Capitals 3-0: Washington kills off the penalty and we’re back to even strength. Boston had a few good looks on the power play, but no Grade-A scoring chances.
Second Period, 13:40, Capitals 3-0: Brooks Orpik has taken a penalty for interference and Boston is returning to the power play.
Second Period, 10:34, Capitals 3-0: Mike Green has given the Capitals a commanding lead with the team’s second power-play goal of the game. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky picked up assists.
GIF via Twitter/@MyRegularFace
Second Period, 9:59, Capitals 2-0: Zdeno Chara has taken a roughing penalty and Washington is headed to the power play, where it’s 1-2 tonight.
Second Period, 9:07, Capitals 2-0: The Kelly-Soderberg-Eriksson line is the only one consistently creating scoring chances. Boston is outshooting Washington 19-11 but most of those shots have come from the perimeter.
Second Period, 6:13, Capitals 2-0: The matching minors have expired and we’re back to even strength. Washington has used its timeout after an icing.
Second Period, 3:44, Capitals 2-0: The Marchand-Bergeron-Smith line creates three good scoring opportunities, but they all are thwarted by Braden Holtby.
Brad Marchand and Nate Schmidt took matching minor penalties for roughing, so we’ll have 4-on-4 action for two minutes.
Second Period, 1:43, Capitals 2-0: The Bruins power play is over and we’re back to even strength.
Second Period, 0:01, Capitals 2-0: We’re back for the second period!
End of First Period, 2-0 Capitals
Stats
Shots: 14-7 Bruins
Faceoffs: 10-9 Bruins
Hits: 11-8 Bruins
Special Teams: BOS 0-1, WSH 1-2
Goals
Alex Ovechkin PPG (1), assisted by Nicklas Backstrom (1) and John Carlson (1)
Alex Ovechkin (2), assisted by Nicklas Backstrom (2) and Karl Alzner (1)
[tweet https://twitter.com/bruins_stats/status/521084888422703105 align=”center”]
First Period, 19:41, 2-0 Capitals: The Bruins are getting another power play. Andre Burakovsky takes a tripping penalty.
First Period, 18:39, 2-0 Capitals: Alex Ovechkin has scored his second goal of the game. He skated through the left faceoff circle untouched, received a pass and beat Tuukka Rask with a quick wrist shot. Nicklas Backstrom picked up his second assist of the game, and Karl Alzner earned his first helper.
GIF via Twitter/@PeteBlackburn
First Period, 18:00, 1-0 Capitals: Braden Holtby denies Chris Kelly on a shot from the slot again. That’s two times Kelly has been denied from that area of the ice.
First Period, 11:26, 1-0 Capitals: Alex Ovechkin has scored on the power play from his usual spot in the left faceoff circle. John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom picked up assists.
Ovechkin now has five power-play points (three goals, two assists) in his last six games against Boston (including tonight).
GIF via Twitter/@PeteBlackburn
First Period, 11:18, 0-0: Bobby Robins and Michael Latta drop the gloves for a quick fight next to the Capitals bench. The B’s forward receives a nice ovation from the Garden crowd.
Robins also took a kneeing penalty and Washington will return to the power play.
First Period, 9:21, 0-0: A Chris Kelly shot from the slot was headed for the top right corner of the net, but Braden Holtby made a phenomenal glove save after moving back into his crease after playing the puck behind the goal line.
Boston has a 9-3 shot advantage so far.
GIF via Twitter/@MyRegularFace
First Period, 8:17, 0-0: Washington kills off the penalty. Boston created some quality chances, but Braden Holtby made a few nice saves to keep the game scoreless. He stopped a rebound shot by Brad Marchand from just a few feet to his right.
First Period, 6:17, 0-0: Mike Green has taken a minor penalty for interference, and the Bruins are headed to the power play for the first time tonight.
First Period, 5:51, 0-0: A good attacking-zone shift by the Kelly-Soderberg-Eriksson line ends in a faceoff to the left of Braden Holtby. The Bruins are controlling 5-on-5 early on.
First Period, 4:03, 0-0: Bruins kill the penalty and we’re back to even strength.
First Period, 2:45, 0-0: Chris Kelly, Loui Eriksson, Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara are the first penalty kill unit.
First Period, 2:03, 0-0: Claude Julien has switched his top two pairings. Zdeno Chara is with Adam McQuaid, and Dougie Hamilton is alongside Dennis Seidenberg.
Seidenberg just took a tripping penalty and the Capitals are going on the power play.
First Period, 0:01, 0-0: We’re underway!
7:oo p.m.: Starting lineups
Capitals: Alexander Ovechkin–Nicklas Backstrom–Eric Fehr, John Carlson–Brooks Orpik, Braden Holtby
Bruins: Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Reilly Smith, Zdeno Chara–Dougie Hamilton, Tuukka Rask
Matt Bartkowski and Jordan Caron are healthy scratches for Boston tonight.
6:40 p.m.: Lines and pairings are the same from the morning skate (see below).
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6:30 p.m.: Tuukka Rask leads the Bruins onto the ice for warmups. He will start in net. Braden Holtby will start for Washington.
6:10 p.m.: The Bruins have returned to TD Garden for a Saturday night matchup against the Washington Capitals.
The Caps arrive in Boston after losing in a shootout to the Montreal Canadiens in their home opener Thursday. The B’s are 1-1-0 after winning their opener against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday and losing to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
After not playing well against Detroit and struggling offensively with one goal scored and just 17 shots, B’s head Claude Julien is just focused on his team and not the opposition.
“With the way we played last game, I’ll answer questions about my team because that’s where my whole focus was,” Julien said after the morning skate. “Pre-scout is done and we played them in preseason so we have a pretty good idea of what they can bring but right now if I don’t look at my own club I don’t think I’m doing the right thing.”
The Bruins will be without centers David Krejci (undisclosed injury) and Gregory Campbell (core), as expected. Both players skated Saturday morning.
The Capitals could welcome defenseman Mike Green back to the lineup after he missed the first game of the season.
Here are the expected lines and pairings for both teams. Stay tuned to NESN.com’s Bruins-Capitals live blog for score updates, injury news, highlights and analysis from the Garden.
BOSTON
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly–Carl Soderberg–Loui Eriksson
Milan Lucic–Ryan Spooner–Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille–Craig Cunningham–Bobby Robins
Zdeno Chara–Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg–Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug–Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
WASHINGTON
Alexander Ovechkin–Nicklas Backstrom–Eric Fehr
Marcus Johansson–Andre Burakovsky–Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera–Brooks Laich–Joel Ward
Liam O’Brien–Evgeny Kuznetsov–Chris Brown
Brooks Orpik–John Carlson
Karl Alzner–Matt Niskanen
Mike Green–Nate Schmidt
Braden Holtby
