Two weeks ago in Vancouver, the Caps honored the occasion of T.J. Oshie’s 1,000th NHL game by eking out a one-goal victory in a low-scoring, low-event hockey game against an elite opponent in the Canucks. On Saturday night at Capital One Arena with defenseman John Carlson playing in his 1,000th game, the Caps fell just short of a repeat performance, falling 3-2 to the Boston Bruins in a five-round shootout.
On his grand night, Carlson upheld his reputation for coming up big in crucial moments. The Caps never held a lead in Saturday’s game, but it was Carlson’s power-play goal in the back half of the second period that tied the game at 2-2, and that was the last goal of the game, shootout notwithstanding.
Carlson’s goal was the 149th of his NHL career, tying him with Kevin Hatcher for the all-time lead among Washington blueliners. Carlson also became the 60th player (of 392) to score in their 1,000th game, and the ninth defensemen (of 128) to do so. Carlson joined one of his mentors – ex-Caps defenseman Calle Johansson – as only the second Capital ever to score in their 1,000th game, of the 13 who have surpassed the milestone in a Washington sweater.
With blueliner Rasmus Sandin unable to play Saturday’s game because of a lower body injury, Vincent Iorio stepped in and saw his first NHL action of the season, but he logged only 9:12 in ice time on the night, as Sandin’s minutes – typically more than 20 of them – were scattered among the group.
As usual, Carlson pulled down the big minutes, playing 30:16 on the night.
“The guys stepped up; I thought everyone was doing their jobs,” says Carlson. “I thought I could have had a better game, but the [defense] stepped up and really played a solid game, in bigger minutes than some of them are used to. It was great to see.”
The game was tautly played, with little to be found in the way of time and space at either end of the ice, and with that time and space even harder to come by in the middle of the rink.
“It would have been nice to finish it off in overtime on that power play, or in the shootout,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “We had some opportunities. But overall, big picture, the game as a whole, I thought it was a really good hockey game.”
The first half of the first belonged mainly to the Caps in terms of possession and scoring chances; Washington had excellent early looks from both Connor McMichael and Ivan Miroshnichenko, but Boston blueliner Hampus Lindholm successfully swept the crease to keep McMichael’s bid out, and Miroshnichenko shanked his shot.
Washington killed off a Boston power play in the front half of the first, but the Caps had difficulty finding their mojo thereafter, and the B’s slowly seized the momentum. Washington was held without a shot on goal for the final 12:45 of the first period.
With just over minute left in the first, Lindholm sifted a left point shot through traffic and into the net for a 1-0 Boston lead at 18:47.
Early in the second, the Caps ended a shotless drought of 14 minutes and 5 seconds, and they knotted the score in the process. From his own end of the ice, Nick Jensen alertly noticed Mike Sgarbossa lurking near the Boston line as the B’s made a change. Jensen zipped a sharp tape-to-tape to Sgarbossa, who carried to the inside of the right circle before issuing a perfect shot to the top far corner of the cage, squaring the score at 1-1 at 1:20 of the middle frame.
In scoring his fourth goal of the season, Sgarbossa went to school on a Beck Malenstyn odd man rush opportunity in the first period.
“They were changing,” recounts Sgarbossa of his goal. “It was a good play by Jens – a heads up play – to get it up to me. And then on the shot, I saw Beck’s 2-on-1 opportunity that he had in the first, and from my angle, it looked like the blocker was open. So I wanted to try in that spot again.”
But Boston restored its lead a mere 62 seconds later. Bruins rookie John Beecher made a good read to break up a pass high in the Boston zone, kicking the puck into neutral ice and using his speed to create a breakaway opportunity. Beecher beat Caps’ goalie Charlie Lindgren through the five-hole at 2:22 to make it a 2-1 game.
Minutes later, the Bruins created a trio of Grade A scoring opportunities roughly a minute apart, only to be denied by Lindgren on each one. First, he stopped Trent Frederic’s tip-in try from the middle of the offensive zone, then Jesper Boqvist’s tip-in attempt from the top of the paint. Finally, he thwarted a Charlie McAvoy backhander from in tight, all to keep the Caps close.
Those saves loomed even larger when the Bruins took a pair of minor penalties in short succession midway through the middle period. The first of those two power play opportunities for Washington produced nothing, but the Caps established the zone on the second kick at the can, with Carlson tying the game on his big night.
Max Paciroretty and Dylan Strome exchanged the puck and places, the former moving down to the goal line off the right post, with the disc on his stick. From there, he put a perfect cross-crease feed to Carlson, stationed just off the left post. The Caps’ franchise defenseman didn’t miss, tying it up at 2-2 at 14:03.
“Sometimes when it gets a little stagnant,” says Carlson, “we like to switch and make them get a different look, make them have to change up their coverage, or flip it, or whatever it is. Patch made a good play to me.”
The third period was the lowest event stanza of the three. The two teams combined for just 14 shots and no goals, and the Caps needed a clutch penalty kill midway through the frame.
In the first minute of overtime, Lindholm was boxed for a double-minor for hi-sticking Oshie, a penalty that gave Washington a 4-on-3 power play for four minutes of the 4:03 that remained when Lindholm was seated. The Caps managed four shots, but couldn’t find the game-winner. Bruins’ goaltender Jeremy Swayman made one of his best stops of the night on Strome, early in that man advantage.
Ex-Caps defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk – a healthy scratch in each of each of Boston’s previous three games and five of its previous seven – won it for the Bruins in the fifth round.
Uncharacteristically saddled with three losses in their previous four games, the Bruins made lineup alterations to good effect, getting back in the win column to improve to 2-2-0 on what is a six-game road trip. For the B’s, the four-minute kill in overtime was the key to swinging the extra point to them.
“Real good sacrifice,” says Boston coach Jim Montgomery. “Blocked some shots, great saves by our goalie, and real good sticks by our penalty killers. And we used all seven guys.”
For Washington, the primary objective of Saturday’s game was to bounce back from a rare lackluster performance in a 5-1 loss to the Leafs in Toronto on Thursday. With Lindgren in the crease, they fully unlocked that achievement. The Minnesota native has yet to endure consecutive appearances this season without helping his team to at least a point, a streak he continued on Saturday night.
“I thought we did that,” says Lindgren. “I thought we had a real good game tonight against a good opponent. I thought we limited their chances, and I thought we had some good looks. Obviously, we had some good opportunities on the 4-on-3 in overtime, and obviously wish we could have got that extra point in the shootout.”
What the Caps did get was some favorable results on the out-of-town scoreboard, enough to push them into a tie with Philadelphia for third place in the Metro Division standings. Washington also maintained its two-point lead over Detroit as far as the second wild card slot is concerned.
Washington now has its final break of more than a day between games before it takes to the road to face the Sabres in Buffalo on Tuesday night. The Caps finish out the season with a grueling grind of nine games in 15 nights, beginning on Tuesday.
