Bruins' Woes Against Capitals Continue

BOSTON- The beat goes on for the Bruins when it comes to the Washington Capitals.
Boston dropped its 11th straight game to the Caps on Thursday night with a 5-3 setback at TD Garden. The losing streak dates back to March 29, 2014, the B's longest such stretch against any opponent.

"I'm not heading into the game and thinking about it," said Patrice Bergeron, who notched two of Boston's three goals. "I'm showing up and I want to win like any other game. We knew it was a challenge for us being a back-to-back. It's a team we want to beat and we have to beat.
"It's big points and we know that we haven't been successful. So we have to take it on ourselves to be better."

With that long stretch of ineffectiveness against the Capitals in mind, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy wanted to take a more aggressive approach.
"The first thing is we wanted to be more physical, more assertive than in the past, against the Caps…we seemed to wait around to see what would happen and then get behind and then react to it," said Cassidy. "There's been too much of chasing the game. And as it turned out, we ended up doing that again."
Another factor in that game plan was the Bruins' early morning arrival back in Boston after their overtime win in Detroit on Wednesday night. Taking on the Metro Division-leading Caps on the second night of a back-to-back is no easy task, but the Bruins did not use the schedule as an excuse.
"I mean, we're professionals," said Brad Marchand. "We're all in good shape. We can play in back-to-backs…it's never fun getting in at 3 a.m. and playing the next day, but it is what it is, and we gave ourselves every opportunity to win. We just didn't capitalize on the opportunities."

The highlight of the night was the two-goal performance from Bergeron. Boston's alternate captain tied the game early in the second period with a power-play marker, which pushed him past Bruins legend Bobby Orr for eighth place on the team's all-time goals list. Bergeron added a second power-play tally in the closing seconds, giving him his 265th and 266th career goals.
"I didn't even know that. It's not something that I'm really thinking about, to be honest with you," said Bergeron. "I have a lot of respect for Mr. Orr… it's a legend, so it's nice. But like I said, I just learned that. So no different than I guess any other thing. I don't really worry about that stuff."
After Bergeron tied the game at 4:22 of the second, Washington notched three straight goals - one from Niklas Backstrom and two from Alex Chiasson - to open up a 4-1 advantage by the midway point of the third. David Krejci potted his fifth of the year with 3:40 to go, but Alex Ovechkin's fluky empty-net goal off the boards in the neutral zone put a bow on Washington's victory.

"I don't think it's necessarily that we have a mindset in any way that we can't beat them," said Brandon Carlo. "It's just that we've got to come out and have better starts. That's the biggest thing for us against that group. Once they carry the lead, they hold on to it pretty well. I think that's been the hurting factor."
More observations from the loss to Washington:
Marchand's milestone: Brad Marchand also had a milestone night, picking up his 400th career point with an assist on Bergeron's first goal. The helper also extended Marchand's points streak to seven games, tying a career high.

Pastrnak's point streak: David Pastrnak just barely extended his own points streak to 10 games with an assist on Bergeron's second goal with 27 seconds to go. The 21-year-old has five goals and seven assists over that stretch.
Khudobin drops second straight: After a four-game win streak that may prove to be season-saving for the Bruins, Anton Khudobin has lost his last two starts. Boston's backup netminder has not played poorly, but has been on the wrong end of two bad starts, against the Predators in Nashville on Dec. 4 and again on Thursday night against Washington.
Without a regulation loss over his first nine games of the season, Khudobin is now 7-2-2 with a 2.67 goals against average and .915 save percentage.

Split decision for power play: Boston notched two goals on five power-play opportunities - both from Bergeron - but also allowed a breakaway shorthanded goal for the second consecutive game. Trailing by two, Chiasson blocked a Torey Krug blast from the point and cruised in all alone on Khudobin to extend the Caps' lead to 4-1 at 11:31 of the third.
"We've got to be better. It's on us," said Bergeron. "I don't necessarily know what exactly it is. Sometimes we've talked about even 5-on-5 cheating a little bit on the offense. I guess on those plays we're cheating it a little bit. And, yes, when you're on the power play you have a man advantage, but you still have to make those plays and take what's there and keep it simple.
"I think that's what we did on the goal that we scored, and that's what we didn't do on that goal against - on those two goals against. [Wednesday] night too."
Beleskey waived: Before the game, veteran winger Matt Beleskey was placed on waivers with the hope that he clears and reports to Providence. The 29-year-old has appeared in 14 games with Boston this season and has not registered a point.
"Matt is very well liked in the room," said Cassidy. "So no one likes to see a player get waived. The way we look at it as an organization is, he hadn't played much, and I think the best way for him to get back to helping the Boston Bruins is to get playing. So assuming he clears, goes to Providence, finds his game, what he did well before previously."