The Boston Bruins’ best scoring chance Sunday didn’t result in a goal.
And while some of it can be attributed to Washington Capitals netminder Braden Holtby, a lot of the, well, blame has to fall on winger Nick Ritchie.
During the second period, Anders Bjork and Charlie Coyle were on a 2-on-2 rush that resulted in Bjork firing a shot. Holtby made the save, but the puck remained in the crease until Nick Jensen swatted it away. However, the puck ended up just a few feet in front of the crease, and as Coyle fed the puck to Ritchie at the other side of the net, a handful of players went tumbling into the crease, throwing Holtby way out of position.
That left Ritchie with a semi-open net with which to score the would-be tying goal, and twice he didn’t finish.
IMO Nick Ritchie probably should've put one of these away pic.twitter.com/kp5uGXU7Bc
— Logan Mullen (@ByLoganMullen) August 9, 2020
(You can watch video of the play here)
It was not ideal, and the Bruins ultimately lost 2-1.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy expressed mostly positive things about the Ritchie-Coyle-Bjork third line, and in discussing that group shared some thoughts about the play.
“That one sequence of plays, Ritch has two looks, Washington defenseman was down on the ice. So, next time will he take the extra second and get it up or will it go in the first time? I don’t know. Those are some pretty good looks.”
The Bruins’ only goal ended up coming from Jake DeBrusk off a nice feed from Ondrej Kase.
