Not much went right for the Bruins on Wednesday night.
The Capitals hoisted their Stanley Cup championship banner and went on to beat Boston 7-0 in the season opener for both teams. The beatdown began just 24 seconds after the puck dropped as Washington had complete control of the game from start to finish.
B’s goalie Tuukka Rask was pulled midway through the second period after he allowed five goals on 19 shots, including three goals on three shots over a 3:11 span. After the game, head coach Bruce Cassidy mentioned he thought about pulling the goalie when Boston went down 4-0, but wanted to give Rask a chance to bounce back.
“Yeah, I thought we’d respond at some point,” Cassidy said after the game, as seen on NESN’s Bruins postgame coverage. “Let Tuukka play through it, he deserves that like anyone else. But after the fifth one he was off his post and that was probably enough for him.”
The move paved the way for Jaroslav Halak to make his B’s debut between the pipes. The 33-year-old allowed two goals on 18 shots, and while Cassidy praised the backup goaltender, it came with a bit of criticism toward the rest of the squad.
“He played well,” Cassidy said. “He was our best player. And that’s probably never good when your backup goalie is your best player. But I thought he really played well.”
Cassidy noted he was unsure about who will start Thursday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, given both goalies played half of the game.
Here are some other notes from Wednesday’s Bruins-Capitals game:
— Rask said he “felt fine” in net but he knows his performance was nowhere near his best.
“I’m out there to give us a chance (to win) and it didn’t happen today,” Rask said after the game. “Placed three soft goals so I gotta look in the mirror and go fix it. …Something positive, I made a couple saves in the first then the second period came and it was quickly done for me. Just one of those games.”
— Brad Marchand dropped the gloves with Lars Eller after the Capitals forward scored to make it 7-0 in favor of the home team. Marchand connected with some big right hands and bloodied Eller in the process.
“It was the celebration. It was unnecessary,” Marchand said. “He took an angle in front of our bench and celebrated in a 7-0 game. So I just let him know.”
— The 7-0 shutout for Washington was the largest win by a defending Stanley Cup championship team in a season opener.
— John Moore had four shots on goal for Boston, while Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, David Pastrnak and Joakim Nordstrom had three. Braden Holtby proved to be too much as he stopped 25 shots on the night.
