Meltdown Avoided, Third Time's The Charm: Caps 5 - 3 Bruins

Photo Credit: Nick Wass / AP

For the most part the Washington Capitals played a very solid game last night. Outplaying the Boston Bruins in the first period, but coming away with nothing to show for it. It seemed like it was going to be another night of frustration for the Caps as they just could not solve Boston goaltender Tim Thomas, even with a two man advantage and outshooting Boston 8-3. The period would come to an end scoreless.  The second period would prove to be  much the same. Washington had the decided edge in play, and in shots, and finally would break the game open, not only scoring first, but scoring 3 goals while keeping Boston off the board all together to take a 3 to 0 lead into the second intermission. The Caps opened the scoring early in the period, scoring just 59 seconds in and would keep the pressure on for the remainder of the period getting goals from Tyler Sloan, Mike Green, and Alexander Semin.  Semin's goal was a particularly brilliant play catching the Boston defence off guard while they were on the power play by breaking up a pass at the Washington line and springing himself and Mike Green for a 2 on 1 break. The two had a nifty give and go exchange deep in the Boston zone and Semin whipped  the return pass from Green past Tim Thomas for the shorthanded goal to make the lead 3-0.

Photo by Clyde Caplan, clydeorama.com

The Caps and their fans were feeling good going into the third period having chased Boston's top man between the pipes in favor of backup goaltender Tuuka Rask. However the 3-0 lead the Caps had built going into the third period would soon disappear and it looked like Washington was on its way to another monumental meltdown. This was the 2nd straight game the Caps would blow a multiple goal lead allowing Boston to score twice on the power play in less than a minute. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau had seen enough and used his time out to attempt to settle things down, but it appeared it was not going to do any good. though as just under 6 minutes later Boston come back to tie the game at 3 all, and chase the Caps NHL Rookie of the month goaltender Michael Neuvirth. This the second straight game that the Caps would allow the opposition to score 3 straight however The Caps 3 goals in the 2nd proved to be enough, where as the previous game against Toronto the lead was only two. Only this time the Caps would have the answer in regulation.  Enter defencemen John Carlson who at 13:25 of the final period would put the Caps back in the lead for good, scoring what would become the game winner with a blast past the Boston backup. Boston decided to lift their goaltender for the final minute and a half or so of the game but could not get much going. Boston became trapped in their own end with defencemen ending up playing goalie but that could not keep the Caps from scoring as Alex Ovechkin would eventually find the empty net at 19:-08, putting the game away for good. The Caps outshot the Bruins a whopping 39 to 18 for the game.  All I have to say is *PHEW*!   A great two first periods all but completely undone in the third by some lazy penalties and possibly some overconfidence, but the Caps were able to pull this one out. The Caps are now 6-1 on home ice, and have finally solved Tim Thomas and beaten the Bruins for the first time in 3 tries. Here are Bruce Boudreau's thoughts after the near meltdown turned win:

A Calling Out From The Top

Last year at this juncture of the young NHL season, the Washington Capitals were 3-2-2 after 7 games. This year they are slightly better after 7, at 4-3-0. Ah, but simple wins and losses do not tell the full story, as they rarely do. Belying these better numbers, are some rather troubling statistics if you dig a bit deeper. This year, after 7 games, the Capitals have:

• Two regulation wins
• Scored first once
• Scored more than two goals in regulation once
• No leads after one period
• One lead going into the third period
• Have scored a paltry 4 power play goals in 30 opportunities (13.3%) good for pedestrian 17th in the NHL.

So, if it seems like the Capitals have struggled, even when they have won games, you are not alone in noticing this. These seemingly small little facts, coupled with some rather visible on ice struggles have caught the eye of not only us the fans, but the Capitals biggest, most important fan, owner Ted Leonsis, as well.

Today on his blog, Ted's Take, the Caps top boss called out the team, and deservedly so. Simply put, he has said what many of us have been thinking for most of this week.


"It isn't them, its us. We aren’t a very good team right now. We have a lot of work to do in practice. We have to heal up as we seem to lose a player in every game to injury that jumbles up the lines. We are what our record says we are and right now, we are just an average NHL team."


These are just a few of the very candid thoughts Leonsis had on the current state of our beloved Caps today. You can click the link to his blog above to read the rest. The Caps are missing the services of several key players, not the least of which is top defenceman Mike Green. However for a team with the supposed depth the Caps are touted to have, this should not be too big of a hurdle to overcome. Suffice it to say, that all eyes will be watching very closely when the Atlanta Thrashers, the team that handed Washington its first loss of the season and an 0-1-0 start, come calling to Verizon Center on Saturday night.

After handing 2 straight wins and 4 standings points over to the Boston Bruins it will be interesting to see if the Capitals can get things together and will have revenge on their minds. You can find the box score for the debacle in bean town here, as well as the Washington Post and Capitals own postmortems here, and here respectively, and here is Bruce Boudreau's post game presser:



It should be noted that there has been one very bright spot thus far this season, and that is the Capitals penalty killing. At least it was until last night. Going into last nights game the Capitals were a perfect 24 for 24 (100%) on the PK. That all came crashing down last night, allowing goals on all 3 Bruins power play chances. Let's hope that was just a fluke because if the PK starts to struggle, the Caps are in some real trouble.

That said, this bad stretch is not the end of the world, but could it be an indication of things to come? Perhaps the Caps are not as strong as they were last season? What do you think? Can we handle the injuries and still play like the 2010 presidents trophy winners? Or should they possibly look into bolstering the blue line, or perhaps add a slightly less soft scorer? Or, are the Caps just simply snake bitten right now? Unable to find virtually open nets or capitalize on rather glaring mistakes of the opposing teams goaltender or defence? Let me know what YOU think. The comments are open. Let the fun begin.