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Game 20 Live Blog: Washington Capitals @ Boston Bruins

Published

3 years ago

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Boston Bruins

Here are five thoughts from the second period with the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals locked in a scoreless game after the first 40 minutes of play at TD Garden.

 

  • The Bruins have nine shots on net through two periods. Nine. Of course, the Capitals have 11 shots on net as well. So this looks like a defensive grudge-fest between the two heavy East Division foes tonight. They are going toe-to-toe and slugging it out with a punishing brand of hockey. Will be interesting to see who cracks first.

 

  • A team-leading two shots on net for Nick Ritchie through two periods. That makes some level of sense given the kind of game that this has been, but the Bruins need more of their top offensive guys to push through here in the final 20 minutes. But credit where it’s due, David Pastrnak made a great hustling back-check to break up a 2-on-1 in the second period with Conor Sheary just about ready to pull the trigger.

 

  • Jared Tinordi seems to venture pretty far away from the net in the defensive zone for a stay-at-home guy. I wonder if that is something he’s going to need to adjust here with the Bruins if he had more freedom to roam with the Predators, particularly when he has a partner like Connor Clifton that’s more adept at tracking down the pucks.

 

  • Charlie McAvoy only has a shot on net and a blocked shot in his 13 plus minutes of ice time tonight, but he’s been very involved in a lot of what’s been going on throughout a physical, heavy-hitting game.

 

  • Tuukka Rask has been excellent, even though he’s made just 11 saves through two periods.

Here are five thoughts from the first period with the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals locked in a scoreless game after the first 20 minutes of play at TD Garden.

 

  • The Bruins didn’t haver a shot on net for the first 12 plus minutes of the first period, but it didn’t end up hurting them. Instead, they focused on playing good, hard and heavy defense against the Capitals and waited for things to unfold offensively as the period went along. They were also bailed out by a coach’s challenge when Jared Tinordi and Connor Clifton both chased after TJ Oshie at the side boards and opened up the rest of the ice. Oshie eventually scored on a bouncing puck in front after feeding Richard Panik in the open area, but it was eventually canceled out by a borderline offsides challenge that went Boston’s way.

 

  • What a bruising first period. Garnet Hathaway and Charlie McAvoy both went at each other hard, and Nick Ritchie has doled out a couple of big-time hits on the fore-check that may eventually pay dividends against the Capitals defenseman. It looked like he hurt Nick Jensen after crushing him behind the Capitals net. Tinordi got into it as well teaming with Chris Wagner to crush Carl Hagelin in front of the Bruins bench. It’s been amazing to watch the Bruins become a team that doesn’t get pushed around by the Caps anymore.
  • A great video tribute for Zdeno Chara in his first game back against his old Boston Bruins team at TD Garden. It’s too bad it couldn’t become an iconic moment with a packed house of fans here to give Chara the love and recognition he deserves, but it was still very cool to see both benches bang their sticks against the boards and give Big Zee his props.

 

  • The Bruins missed on more shots (four) than they hit the net with and their best scoring chance was a David Pastrnak breakaway that rattled off the post, and Vitek Vanacek’s back before bouncing away from trouble.
  • It feels like somebody is going to drop the gloves pretty soon in this game, so stay tuned for that.
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