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Game 9 Live Blog: Boston Bruins Vs. Washington Capitals

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The Bruins scored four unanswered goals to come all the way back from three goals down and win a 5-3 decision over the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. We’ll have all the details shortly…

Here are five thoughts from the second period with the Bruins trailing the Washington Capitals by a 3-1 score after the first period of play at Capital One Arena.

  • The Bruins got a goal from David Pastrnak. So they have that going for them, which is nice. It was a nice play off an offensive zone face-off win, Brad Marchand fed Pastrnak outside the circle with Patrice Bergeron camped in front on the screen. As invisible as the Perfection Line was in the first period with just two shot attempts, they now have 12 shot attempts after two periods including 10 shot attempts for Pastrnak all by himself. It looks like Pasta is trying to inject some energy into the Bruins, and he did that while putting Boston in position for a potential third period comeback.
  • Coming off an excellent game the other night, Charlie McAvoy has not been good in this one. He’s made some rough turnovers, hung Jeremy Lauzon out to dry on a play where he needed to take a hooking penalty and nearly allowed Alex Ovechkin a breakaway at the end of the second period after trying to stickhandle around him at the offensive blue line. Somehow he’s a plus-1 in this game, but McAvoy has made a lot of mistakes with the puck.

 

  • No shots on net for David Krejci, who once again has been pretty invisible in this game during 5-on-5 play. He’s got just two even strength points on the year and Bruce Cassidy shook things up to try and get some 5-on-5 offense out of him in this game. It’s just not happening right now.

 

  • Zdeno Chara getting point looks on the power play for the Washington Capitals and has two goals this season in a couple of weeks after getting just five in all of last season for the Black and Gold. He’s certainly been good in this one against his former team while on pace to finish with around 20 minutes of ice time.

 

  • The Bruins have been excellent on the penalty kill this season, but they are getting dinged by the Capitals top-ranked power play in this two-game miniseries. They allowed John Carlson to completely waltz down the slot with the puck before burying a top corner shot to the blocker side of Jaroslav Halak. That’s just soft PK defense.

Here are five thoughts from the first period with the Boston Bruins trailing the Washington Capitals by a 2-0 score after the first period of play at Capital One Arena.

 

  • Boy, that was lackluster Boston Bruins play to close out that period. One would think they would have responded with some energy after a successful coach’s challenge knocked down a Capitals goal for being offside. Instead the Capitals kept right on going and scored two goals in 11 seconds while taking a two-goal lead against a Bruins team that looked pretty stunned. The soft, lazy defense on the second goal as Daniel Sprong dangled right through the Bruins defense was as bad as things have looked all year defensively for the Black and Gold.

 

  • Zdeno Chara with the big blast that eluded Jaroslav Halak for Washington’s first goal of the game. That was after Halak had a ton of trouble on another Chara half-slapper from the point earlier in the period. The puck was hanging there in the crease for a while before he finally covered it up, but it looks like Chara’s low, heavy blasts are giving the Bruins goalie some trouble.

 

  • Brad Marchand with a scary play behind the Washington net when he was chasing Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, and then lost an edge and slammed left arm first into the end boards. Marchand didn’t miss a shift, but he was very clearly shaking off the pain on the bench after the nasty collision into the boards.
  • Just two shot attempts for Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak in the first period. That’s not nearly enough offense, puck possession or pressure from the Perfection Line in a game where they are dearly needed against the Washington Capitals. Some of that was about Marchand getting shaken up after slamming into the boards, but it was more about just a lack of sharp play by Boston’s top line. It was Bergeron losing a defensive zone face-off with Nic Dowd that led to the Zdeno Chara goal that started really opening things up for the Capitals.

 

  • Three shots apiece for Alex Ovechkin, Zdeno Chara and John Carlson in that first period. It sure looks like the Capitals’ best players weren’t fooling around in that opening 20 minutes. It’s time for the Bruins to get with the program.

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