Bruins Roll Over Caps, 5-2

The Caps played their first game on F St. in more than three months on Tuesday night, but it mattered much less than the last game they played at Capital One Arena, Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 4. Facing the Boston Bruins in their home preseason opener, the Caps fell behind early and were never able to get a lead. They dropped a 5-2 decision to the Bruins.

"I liked our third period," said Caps coach Todd Reirden after the game. "I think we've been pushing pretty hard in practice through the start of camp, and as a result you get off to a little bit of a slow start sometimes in the preseason games.
"We've got a lot of young guys playing sometimes their first games, and they're a little bit nervous. As they get used to how things are going, they seem to find their legs and have a little bit more success as the game goes on. I think that was the story tonight, for the most part."

Cameron Hughes staked the Bruins to an early 1-0 lead with a deflection of a Cody Goloubef shot from the right point at 1:45 of the first frame. The Caps got that one back just a few minutes later on a nifty deflection of their own, Riley Barber tipping Alexander Alexeyev's left point drive past Bruins netminder Dan Vladar at 4:14 of the first.
Boston scored the next three goals unanswered, getting a go-ahead goal from Jakob Lauko in the final minute of the first to take the lead for good. Lauko exited the penalty box, took a feed from Austin Fyten, and beat Caps goalie Braden Holtby with 56.9 seconds left in the first.
With 11:14 left in the second period and a face-off coming in the Boston end of the ice, Washington made a change in goal. As planned, Holtby retired for the night and Ilya Samsonov came in in relief, making his first appearance in front of the home crowd. Eight seconds later, Samsonov made his first save, denying Zach Senyshyn on a breakaway. But Senyshyn grabbed his own rebound and beat Samsonov to make it 3-1 at 8:56, a mere 10 seconds after the 21-year-old former first-rounder took the crease.

Senyshyn scored again in the final minute of the period to make it a 4-1 contest heading into the third.
Washington played its best period in the final frame, but the deficit proved to be too big to overcome. The Caps had a chance to climb back into it in the third when the Bruins went shorthanded four times, and Matt Niskanen scored on a broken play for the Caps on the first of those manpower advantages at 1:44 of the third.
The Caps had some offensive-zone time and some good looks on those third-period power plays, but the Bruins penalty-killing outfit kept them off the board after Niskanen's goal. Nearly half (16 of 33) of Washington's shots on net for the night came in the third, and nearly half (7 of the 16) of those came on the power play. The lanky (6-foot-5, 185 pounds) Vladar was strong all night, leaving little in the way of loose change in front.
Sean Kuraly scored into an empty net to account for the 5-2 final, Boston's third last-minute goal in as many periods.
The three right-handed center men - Travis Boyd, Nic Dowd and Jayson Megna - vying for Washington's vacant fourth-line pivot post were all in the lineup on Tuesday, though Megna was playing right wing after manning the middle on Sunday against the B's in his first preseason action.
Boyd recorded a secondary assist on the Barber goal, had three shots on net and he drew a penalty. He logged 16:09 on the night, including 5:10 worth of power play time and 1:50 of shorthanded time. Probably the most offensively gifted of the three players, Boyd can help his cause by showing he can kill penalties and win draws, the fortes of the departed Jay Beagle. He won 6 of 15 draws (40%) on the night.

"At the end of the day," said Boyd, "we've got a lot of really top end guys here. So if I can make the team by killing penalties, then that's what it's going to be. So for me, I try and take pride in it and try to do all of the little things right [penalty-killing]. Another thing is face-offs, too. I just keep working on face-offs. Obviously Beagle was one of the best in the league. I'm trying to fill in any role that I can."
Dowd skated 10:54 on the night, including 1:42 of shorthanded ice time. He drew a pair of penalties, led the Caps with three blocked shots and was easily the best Washington center on the dot, winning 12 of 17 draws (71%), including all three defensive-zone draws he took while Washington was down a man. Dowd was also credited with a shot on net and a hit.
"I was okay," said Dowd. "I don't know what I was on the dot, but I started of 0-and-3 or something like that. But I think I battled back. But face-offs were okay, penalty kill I thought was good, again adjusting to a new system, new neutral zone and stuff like that, and then obviously new players. I think offensively I was trying to think the game a little bit too much, and I don't think I performed in the [offensive] zone as I wanted to."
Megna logged 11:37 on the night, recording a shot on net and two hits. After turning in a strong performance on the penalty kill in Washington's preseason opener on Sunday in Boston, Megna skated 48 seconds worth of shorthanded time on Tuesday.
The Caps had seven power plays to just two for Boston, and nearly an entire period's worth (17:22) of game time was spent with one team or the other on the man advantage. When you're trying to make an opening night roster on a new team and trying to pick up a new system in the first week of camp, more five-on-five play and less time on special teams is probably ideal.
"I would personally [prefer more five-on-five hockey], when someone is not on the power play," says Megna. "But that's just the way it goes. The power play needs work too, so it was just the nature of the game tonight, and that's the way it was called. That's the way it goes."
The flurry of third-period power plays depressed Megna's ice time to just 2:19 in that final period.
Nobody made the team or didn't make the team based on Tuesday's contest, and there are five more tune-up tilts just ahead. The group of 65 players in camp will take Wednesday off, and the Caps will close out the workweek with back-to-back road games on Thursday against the Canadiens in Quebec City and on Friday against the Hurricanes in Carolina.