Washington Capitals vs. Boston Bruins -- The Cousins Weigh In on Game 2

If it is the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins in the playoffs, then it’s overtime, one-goal hockey.  The Caps held a late lead, gave it up in regulation, and lost Game 2 in the first minute of overtime, finding themselves tied with the Bruins at a game apiece as they head off to Boston looking to regain home-ice advantage.  But the cousins cannot let them leave town without imparting their unique spin on what transpired on Monday night.

Guys, let’s get to the big question, will the way the Caps lost this game have any lingering effects on their performance?

Fearless: Certainly not.  This is a team that has been resilient and resolute all season long with a knack for winning one-goal games.  And, being a veteran group, they’ve seen this kind of thing before, giving up a late lead and coming back late when behind.  Keep in mind that the Caps have now played four consecutive one-goal games, going back to the last two games of the regular season, and won three of them, losing one – last night – in overtime.  The Caps have bigger issues than whether the way the lost Game 2 will linger.

Cheerless: I think it was the baseball great Old Yeller…

Peerless: You mean Bob Feller?

Cheerless: Yeller, Feller, whatever…Bob Feller, who said, “Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day.”  If the Caps remember that despite being nicked up, losing Lars Eller, and using a goalie who played less than 200 minutes this season, they were less than three minutes from taking a 2-0 series lead against a team most folks said would leave the Caps a pile of road kill on the two-lane, they can put the loss behind them.

Peerless: Speaking of Lars Eller.  Just how big is his absence?

Cheerless: Bigger’n that prize pig at the county fair.  Eller plays in all situations, plays up and down the lines, chips in offense, is counted on for defense.  He is the most versatile skater on the roster.  He’s the “everything bagel” of the Caps.  And that means his absence shakes up the roster in ways perhaps no other forward’s absence would.  It affects 5-on-5, the second power play, defense, and penalty killing.  It's like losing more than one player.

Fearless: The Caps were 27-12-5 in the regular season with Eller in the lineup, 9-3-0 in the 12 games he missed.  On that basis, it is not a panic situation.  But Boston does provide unique challenges, most of all having one of, if not the best forward line in the league.  Eller’s absence means that the Caps are going to be defensively weak down the middle against that line, even if you raise Nic Dowd to that position.  The Caps are already thin at the position with Kuznetsov out (although defense is not his strength), but with Eller out, that problem of stability among the forward lines becomes magnified.  If Kuznetsov is still out of the lineup, and the Caps resort to T.J. Oshie and call-up Connor McMichael in the middle to plug the holes, things get dicey quickly.

Peerless: Is it too early to be concerned about the lack of scoring from the top two lines?

Fearless: I assume by “top two lines,” you’re asking about Alex Ovechkin (0-2-2 in the first two games), Anthony Mantha (0-1-1), and Nicklas Backstrom (0-0-0), with maybe a little Daniel Sprong (0-1-1) thrown in.  Slumps happen, even to elite players.  Backstrom is 1-1-2, even, in seven games going back to the last five games of the regular season and has one goal in his last 14 games.  Ovechkin is six games without a goal (and a minus-5 in the process), although he’s become the author of the redirected puck lately with teammates tipping his shot attempts with some success.  Mantha is a dozen games without a goal, and he has some really good chances last night that he just did not finish.  Spring is four games without a goal, but with him ice time has become an issue with less than ten minutes played in each of the first two games of this series.  Now that this is a best-of-five series, with Boston holding the home ice advantage, the Caps need to get these guys turning on the red lights.

Cheerless: What’s grits without possum gravy?  Yeah, it’s nice that the Caps are getting goals from the bottom six (Garnet Hathaway and Nic Dowd have combined for half of the Caps’ six goals in the two games to far), but those are the grits guys.  Getting offense from them is helpful (like in the 2018 postseason), but you’re not going to get a regular diet of offense from that group.  The four guys you mentioned, cuz, are 0-for-27 shooting so far.  You’d like to think they are too good for that to continue, but it’s a short series now, and over so few games, it’s possible that they can stay stuck in that rut.  If they do, this series isn’t going to last much longer.  The Caps need that gravy from the top two lines.

Peerless: Is the Craig Anderson feel-good story over? 

Cheerless: Geez, cuz…already?  He stopped 65 of 70 shots in two games (.929 save percentage, third among 13 goalies to play in the postseason so far), including 44 of 48 in the overtime loss on Monday night.  He stopped 39 consecutive shots after Patrice Bergeron scored 9:21 into the first period until the Bruins tied the game off a scrum in the goal crease with 2:49 left in the game.  Anderson kept the Caps in the game.  Don’t write him off just yet.

Fearless:  However you describe Anderson’s story, there is likely much to be written of it in the remaining games.  The Caps have been worked into a corner as far as their goaltending is concerned.  Vitek Vanecek is still day-to-day with a lower body injury, and Ilya Samsonov hasn’t played a minute in anger in almost three weeks (a 23-save 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh on May 1^st).  If the Caps can get some other players out of their ruts, avoid the occasional (usually consequential) brain fart in their own end, Anderson has given the Caps enough quality goaltending to be competitive in this series. 

Peerless: OK, guys, it’s a day off, but what’s your soundtrack for Game 3 going to be?

Fearless: I’m going with Respighi’s “Pines of the Appian Way”… the relentless, unyielding march to victory… 

Cheerless: Gotta be Hank Williams and “Settin’ the Woods on Fire”…

“Comb your hair and paint and powder

You act proud and I'll act prouder

You sing loud and I'll sing louder

Tonight we're settin' the woods on fire…”

Peerless: Yeah, well…I’ll just go listen to the general… 

Washington Capitals vs. Boston Bruins -- East Division Semi-Final Game 2: Bruins 4 - Capitals 3 (OT)

The Washington Capitals hosted the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of their opening round playoff matchup on Monday night.  The Caps were looking to hold serve with a second straight win on home ice, while the Bruins were anxious to gain a split in Washington before heading back to Boston for Games 3 and 4.  Boston scored late in regulation to tie the game, and then they scored less than a minute into overtime to take a 4-3 decision and send the teams to Boston tied at a game apiece.

First Period

Boston opened the scoring 5:05 into the game when Charlie Coyle got a step on a Capital defender, carried the puck around the back of the net, and fed Jake DeBrusk at the top of the blue paint, where DeBrusk slam dunked the puck off the skate of defenseman Justin Schultz and in to make it 1-0 for the visitors.

David Pastrnak took a holding penalty 6:19 into the period, and the Caps converted just 12 seconds later.  Alex Ovechkin settled a pass from John Carlson his skate, and from his office in the left wing circle snapped a shot that T.J. Oshie deflected with the end of his stick blade past goalie Tuukka Rask, and it was 1-1.

Boston regained the lead when Pastrnak gloved down an attempted aerial clear by Dmitry Orlov and fed Patrice Bergeron, who ripped a shot from between the tops of the circles over the glove of goalie Craig Anderson and under the crossbar to make it 2-1, B’s, 9:21 into the period.

The Bruins got their first power play of the game 12:46 into the period when Nic Dowd went off for roughing.  Boston failed to convert after Brad Marchand negated the advantage by taking a roughing call at the 13:54 mark, and it gave the Caps a chance to tie the game once more.  Garnet Hathaway was credited with a goal that pinballed off several players

-- The Caps had eight of the first nine shots of the game, but Boston outshot the Caps over the remainder of the period, 17-10, the teams finishing the period with 18 shots on goal apiece.  Boston out-attempted the Caps, 29-27, over the first 20 minutes.

-- The Caps were credited with 18 hits in the period, four of them by Tom Wilson to lead the team.

-- Boston won the battle in the circle in the first period, winning 15 of23 draws. Lars Eller was the only Capital taking more than one faceoff and finishing over 50 percent (5-for-9/55.6 percent).  T.J. Oshie was 0-for-6.

-- Only three Caps did not have a shot attempt in the period: Justin Schultz, Zdeno Chara, and Nicklas Backstrom.  Daniel Sprong led the Caps with three shots on goal.

Second Period

Boston got its second power play of the game when John Carlson was sent off for tripping at 6:22 of the period.  The Bruins did not convert, and the teams played on, still tied at 2-2.  The teams were hit with coincidental minors 13:31 into the period when Connor Clifton went off for interference, and Tom Wilson going to the box for embellishment. And then, Brad Marchand and Anthony Mantha were penalized for slashing and high-sticking, respectively, at 14:11 of the period, keeping the teams at even, if reduced manpower.  A third coincidental set of penalties was called at 16:54 when Nick Jensen for the Caps and Craig Smith for Boston went off for minor roughing calls.

Despite all the hijinks, the teams went to the second intermission as they came out of the first, tied 2-2.

-- Lars Eller did not play the last 9:26 of the period, leaving with an apparent injury.

-- Boston outshot the Caps, 15-9 in the period and out-attempted them, 29-14.

-- The Caps out-hit the Bruins, 28-19, through two period, Tom Wilson leading the team with five.

Third Period

Washington went to the man advantage just 2:05 into the period when Nick Ritchie was sent off for roughing, the seventh roughing call for the teams in this game.  Washington did not convert, but they went right back on the power play when Taylor Hall was called for tripping a the 4:53 mark.

The Caps did not convert on the extra chance, but the Caps took the lead shortly after the power play expired, Garnet Hathaway getting his second goal of the evening.  Taking a pass from Dmitry Orlov from the top of the left wing circle, Hathaway had a clear shooting lane and snapped a shot from the right wing hash mark over the glove of Rask at 7:04 to give the Caps their first lead of the evening, 3-2.

Boston tied the game late, Taylor Hall whacking a loose puck just off Anderson’s left pad at the edge of the crease to make it a 3-3 game.  It would be the last scoring in regulation as, for the second time in this series, the teams went to…

Overtime

Boston made sho9rt work of overtime, scoring the game winner 39 seconds into the extra frame, Brad Marchand taking advantage of a failed Washington clear out of its end to take a cross-ice pass from Matt Grzelcyk and one-timing it past Anderson on the short side to even the series at a game apiece.

Other stuff…

-- Garnet Hathaway’s first period goal was his first career playoff goal and first career playoff point in his 16^th career playoff game.  When he scored later in the contest, it was his first two-goal game of the season and second as a Capital, regular season and playoffs (December 3, 2019, in a 5-2 win over San Jose).

-- This was the 11^th consecutive time that a Washington-Boston playoff game was decided by a single goal, dating back to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal on May 3, 1998.  This was the seventh of those games to go to overtime, the Caps holding a 4-3 record in those extra game contests and 7-4 overall in the 11 one-goal games.

-- Boston outshot the Caps, 48-39, and out-attempted them, 89-63.

-- Anthony Mantha led the Caps with seven shots on goal and tied Alex Ovechkin with eight shot attempts.

-- Boston enjoyed a 41-24 edge in faceoff wins; no Capital finished over 50 percent for the game.

-- Dmitry Orlov had a pair of assists, his second career two-assist game in the postseason (April 21, 2018, in a 4-3 Game 5 win over Columbus in the Eastern Conference first round.

-- Lars Eller did not return after going out with an injury mid-way through the second period.

-- John Carlson led the team with 24:52 in ice time; Daniel Sprong was at the other end with 8:48.

-- The Caps were credited with 36 hits to 30 for Boston, Tom Wilson leading the team with six.

-- Nick Jensen led the team with three blocked shots and added four hits for good measure.

In the end…

An opportunity lost.  Holding a lead with under three minutes in regulation, the Caps played a bit too passive for their own good on defense.  But as we constantly remind folks, it is “best to four,” not “best to one.”  But now the series goes to Boston, where the Caps have won six of their last seven playoff games, five of them in extra time.  They will now have to add to that total to reclaim the home ice advantage.

 

Washington Capitals vs. Boston Bruins -- The Cousins Weigh In on Game 1

The Washington Capitals defeated the Boston Bruins in a thrilling overtime 3-2 win on Saturday night in Washington in Game 1 of the East Division semi-final.  And frankly, it left the cousins absolutely spent.  Fearless consumed an entire bottle of some snooty wine whose name I can’t pronounce, and when the game went to overtime he opened another and announced loudly that the Caps would end the game before he drained the bottle (he drained it anyway), while Cheerless went through an entire bag – party-size bag, mind you – of spicy barbecue pork rinds with a case of Old Milwaukee (his favorite because it’s “aged in the can”).  He was up most of the night dealing with the inevitable discomfort, but he said it was “ a good discomfort,” whatever that means.

But now that they are semi-conscious, it is time to take stock of just what went on last night and what it means going…

Fearless: ...not so LOUD, cousin…my head feels as if Messrs. Oshie and Ovechkin are going through their (urrrp) pre-game ritual in my head. 

…going forward in the series. So guys, first up, were the Caps good, or were they lucky last night?

Fearless: The hockey gods were wearing red jerseys last night, cuz.  Take a close look at that overtime goal credited to Nic Dowd.  It should have been credited to Tuukka Rask. Tom Wilson laid out a beautiful pass to T.J. Oshie that was as soft and comforting as a 2000-thread Egyptian cotton bed sheet, and Oshie let fly with a one-timer that Nic Dowd redirected.  But watch what happens after that…

The redirected puck hits goalie Tuukka Rask right in the logo and drops right in front of him.  Easy cover from there, right?  But no…starting at 1:10 of the video, watch Rask’s left pad gently cradle the puck and Rask pulling it back between his own legs to trickle over the goal line – an “own goal.” 

Cheerless:  Wait, the game’s over?

Peerless: While Cheerless is getting what few wits he has about him, let’s address the elephant in the room.  Craig Anderson had a whale of a game last night, but can he do that three more times?

Cheerless: …

P: Cheerless, where are you?

Fearless: He, uh…is having some…

Cheerless: ah-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Fearless: …intestinal distress.

P: OK, Fearless, looks like you get this one, too.

Fearless: Everyone seemed to mention in the postgame commentary how calm Anderson was when he came in for the injured Vitek Vanecek.  To my untrained eye, he looked a bit…quirky?  A bit unsteady on his skates in places, a few rebounds – ultimately inconsequential ones – left lying around.  But he made the saves he had to make.  But nothing in the playoffs escapes scrutiny, and I’m betting the Boston brains were going over the game video with a fine-toothed comb to see where Anderson might be vulnerable in Game 2.  Those first 20 minutes on Monday night will tell a lot about where Anderson stands (assuming young Mr. Vanecek is unable to answer the bell).

Cheerless: Wait, Craig Anderson plays for the Caps?

P: It seemed Boston was a bit “imperfect” last night, if you know what I mean.  The “Perfection Line” had seven shots on goal for the game (David Pastrnak had six of them), but they did combine for 20 of the Bruins’ 63 shot attempts.  Was it good defense keeping them out of good scoring areas, or was the Patrice Bergeron-Brad Marchand-David Pastrnak line just snake-bit?

Cheerless: I hate snakes…

Fearless: This time of year, opponents are scouted thoroughly.  Then, it is a matter of execution, and this was an example of the sort of execution the Caps displayed in most facets of the game last night.  Pastrnak is the sort who just naturally seems to find holes and voids in defenses, and that might explain his high shot total, but the other two never really seemed to be announcing their presence with much authority in the offensive end.  Credit the game plan and the on-ice execution. 

P: That brings up a point about Marchand… given that the Bruins lost, and he was very quiet in the process, does he do something “Marchand-y” to get the Bruins’ engines revving early in Game 2?

Fearless:  TLW (that little weasel) is an opportunistic sort when it comes to that sort of thing, and his antennae will be working overtime to find opportunities.  Yes, I suspect he’ll be looking to do something Boston fans will love, and the rest of hockey will think suspendable.

Cheerless: Weasels gonna weeze.  It’s what they do.  Speakin’ o’ which…when should I fire up the grill for my famous weasel stew?

P: Let’s just hold off on that…

Cheerless: you know the secret ingredient is crushed pork rinds to give it that rich, full-bodied tang, right?

Fearless: Streaming “The Hillbilly Gourmet” on TV, are we?

P: Guys, can we get back to the subject?  Last night’s game was physical, to say the least.  A total of 92 credited hits.  Will these teams – can these teams – maintain that physical tempo, and does it advantage one team or the other?

Cheerless: Yeah… and no.

Fearless: I think what Cheerless was trying to say, what he put so succinctly, is that these teams are built in similar fashion when it comes to this sort of thing.  They do not shy away from the physical arts, adept as they are at applying them or receiving them, and using them as a means to generate momentum.  But I thought it was interesting how the teams got to their totals.  The Bruins had 41 hits, but more than half – 22 of them – were credited to three players.  Chris Wagner had eight (in 11 minutes and change of ice time), Sean Kuraly had six (in 13-plus minutes), and Jeremy Lauzon had eight (in 19 minutes). Seven Bruins skaters had none.  On the other side, the Caps had 51 hits spread among 15 different skaters. Nine skaters had at least four hits, Brenden Dillon and Michael Raffl leading the team with six apiece.  I’m not sure what that says, if it was Game 1 adrenaline at home or a “one for all, and all for one” mindset.  I’m of the thought that the balance suggests that the Caps are going to try to tenderize the Bruins every chance they get.  What it means for the Bruins as far as their totals are concerned, I’m not sure.  I did see where the Perfection Line was blanked in its entirety in this category, including TLW (that little weasel), but then again, it’s not their game.

P: Is there any player for the Caps who needs to raise their game for Game 2?

Fearless: All of them.  That’s what makes the playoffs the playoffs.  It’s like a crescendo in a Beethoven symphony…all the sections – strings, winds, percuss…

Cheerless: Oh, there he goes again with the Baked Oven music thing…

Fearless: Where was I?

Cheerless: About to sing that “Pie a la Mode to Joy” thing, I think.  Speakin’ o’ which…we got any pie?

Fearless: One thing I have been watching.  Since T.J. Oshie had his hat trick in that inspirational performance in New York after his father passed away, he has one shot on goal in about 41 minutes of ice time over three games.  If he gets off that little slump, the Bruins are going to be in some trouble.

P: Did any Capital surprise you with their performance, and can that player sustain it?

Cheerless: Does this look like pie?

Fearless: In a dog food bowl? 

Cheerless: Hey! That’s my lucky bowl!

P: Guys, please?

Fearless: Brenden Dillon.  A goal, plus-1, two shots on goal, four attempts, six hits, three blocked shots.  As far as the top line numbers go, among his better games of the season.  Can he sustain it?  Probably not, at least as far as scoring goes. Shoot, that was his first NHL playoff goal last night in his 71^st career playoff game, and that one bounced of the blade of a defenseman’s stick.  The rest of it?  That’s why he’s here, the physical edge.

P: Finally, are there any lingering questions you have about last night’s game and its importance going forward?

Fearless: It is always “first to four,” not “first to one.”  The Caps are 29-21 in Games 1 of the postseason in their history, and it has not been the most successful of histories, 2018 notwithstanding.  This is going to be a war of attrition, not unlike the Scythian Campaign of Darius the Great, the third Persian King of Kings during the Achaemenid Empire era, who employed a…

Cheerless: There he goes again…

Fearless: I just wonder if Caps fans will get discouraged when the Bruins win a game and revert to the “we’re doomed” mindset of years passed?

Cheerless: My question is, “who is the Caps’ emergency backup goalie these days?”

P: And with that, rest up Caps fans, we might have six more of these against the Bruins.

Cheerless: Anybody see my bag o’ pork rinds?