Caps Tangle with Bruins Again on Friday
Carrying a four-game winning streak, the Caps take aim on a fifth straight road victory on Friday night in Boston
Two nights after they tangled for the first time in Boston this season, the Caps and the Bruins engage in a Friday night rematch at TD Garden. Wednesday's game went Washington's way, as the Caps prevailed 2-1 in a shootout, a contest virtually bereft of offense and scoring chances, but a compelling one nonetheless.
Neither side scored in the game's first 40 minutes, though Boston's David Pastrnak hit the goalpost on a breakaway and Washington's T.J. Oshie had a goal waived off after a coach's challenge and subsequent video review. Pastrnak scored in the second minute of the third period to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead, and Lars Eller responded for the Caps less than five minutes later. That was it until the shootout when Jakub Vrana scored the only goal and Vitek Vanecek made all three stops to tilt the second-point scale to Washington's side.
"We knew their third and fourth lines were going to be coming hard and making sure to put their bodies on us, and try to be physical," says Caps defenseman Nick Jensen. "And they did; I felt it. And when it's that kind of game, it's not going to be clean, tape-to-tape passes the whole game. You try to [do so] when the plays are there, but a lot of the game today was those hard rims and our wingers making great plays and all our forwards being in great position, coming back to support us and supporting each other on the walls. We got a few odd man rushes out of that.
"The game is not always a pretty one, where you're going tape-to-tape all the way up the ice. Sometimes it's going to be sloppy where you're chipping it, flipping it, going off the boards, causing their [defensemen] to pinch down in bad spots and getting odd man rushes. That's the kind of game we had today, and that's the kind of game we expected."
The two teams split a pair of higher scoring games in Washington just over a month ago - the Caps winning in overtime and Boston in regulation - and each has claimed four points in the three games played thus far in the season's series between the two clubs.
"Throughout the whole game, it was pretty evenly fought," said Oshie after Wednesday's game. "But I think for the most part, we did a good job of controlling what we can control, and that's how we play. I think our [offensive] zone was really good tonight; I think we slipped a little bit and lost some battles, but for the most part we did great. The goaltending was obviously fantastic and our [defense] did a good job back there, boxing them out and not giving them too many second opportunities.
"We're definitely happy with the win. We thought this might be a tight one, and it was. It was a hard-fought battle and we're happy to come out on top."
Wednesday's win was Washington's fourth in a row, its longest winning streak of the season to date. The Caps are 7-1-1 in their last nine games, and they've permitted just 25.4 shots on net per game over that span, the fewest in the league. After permitting an unsightly average of 3.77 goals against per game over the first dozen games of the season, Washington has allowed only 2.11 goals per game over its last nine contests, fifth best in the League over that stretch.
"I'm expecting a pretty similar game," says Jensen of Friday's rematch. "Defensively with both teams, again it's going to be hard fought, it's going to be physical. I think we can do a little bit better at getting the puck out of our zone. Me personally, I got stuck out there for some pretty long shifts, so I've got to really focus on making sure we got the puck out and into their end and play offense instead of playing in the [defensive] zone, because it's hard playing in the [defensive] zone for a long time.
"We'll try to tip the ice towards them and keep it tipped all three periods, while keeping that physicality that we have had and fending off their physicality as well."
After dropping Wednesday's game - the opener of a three-game homestand - the Bruins have two wins in their last seven games (2-4-1). Although Boston is three points behind first-place Washington in the East Division standings, the Bruins have two games in hand on the Capitals.
"They compete hard," says Boston winger Brad Marchand of the Caps. "They've got a lot of guys that are physical. They're a big team, and we have to play that same way to compete with all those teams and to be the best in our division. We came along as the game went on; we didn't have our best first [period] but we got through it and it was a great feeling there in the second and the third.
"It was a playoff-type game; it got a little more physical as the game went on, but that's what we have to expect every night. We've got to be able to play that way each and every game and compete that hard and be that physical and build our game as the season goes on because that's how we have to play to be able to win in the playoffs. That's our goal."
