BOSTON — The Bruins have been atop the NHL for the majority of the season, but the playoff picture is starting to take shape, and multiple teams are looking to keep their spots.
That is what Boston will have to contend with in the final stretch of the regular season, and it was on display during the B’s loss to the Capitals on Saturday. Washington is six points back behind the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan following its win over the Black and Gold, and it holds the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Bruins went down 2-0 at TD Garden, but Nick Foligno cut the deficit to one, and while Boston had multiple chances to tie the game, Darcy Kuemper held strong in his net and helped deliver the Capitals a big win over the NHL-leading Bruins.
“I think it’s just our execution wasn’t clean,” head coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought our effort was good. You expect it to be a little sloppy. It was sloppy in the first. We got better as we expected to get better. I thought we were really good in the second. I didn’t love the beginning of our third, but still, the effort’s there. The execution is going to come. We’re not happy with the loss, obviously. I think the power play we had, we had two great looks. (Patrice Bergeron) doesn’t usually miss from there. Kuemper made a great left pad save. We had the one on the back door. Those are two great looks. They’re grade-A opportunities.
“With our skill level, usually, things go our way. But the thing we’re starting to see now is teams are fighting for their lives and there’s a lot of desperation, and I think it’s only going to get amplified. We’re going to have to start matching that. That’s the thing that concerns me coming out of this game and little bit of what we saw before the All Star break.”
Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Capitals game:
— The loss was only the second regulation loss at home for Boston this season. The last regulation defeat at TD Garden was to the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 12.
“I think the execution was the problem,” Foligno said. “I think our effort was there. I just think urgency and execution wasn’t. There’s no excuse for it, to be honest with you. That’s something this group has always found a way to do, and I think every guy in there is not feeling great. It’s a feeling that we’re not used to in this room, especially in this building. It doesn’t sit well with anybody. And we got a good chance to go on the road now, and get together after a break, and find our game and make sure we have that desperation.”
— Boston was 0-for-4 on the power play against the Capitals. It has been without a power-play goal since Jan. 24., and it is 0-for-17 in its last five games with a man-advantage.
— Montgomery said before the game he wanted to start Jeremy Swayman to “get him up to speed” because the goaltender had not played in 12 days. The head coach gave a good review of the 24-year-old, who recorded 21 saves on the afternoon. When asked about the pressure of the moment, Swayman noted “pressure is what you put in tires.”
— The Bruins will start a two-game road trip Tuesday when they take on the Dallas Stars. Puck drop at American Airlines Center is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage, along with an hour of pregame, on NESN.
