POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Bruins 4, Caps 3

Life'll Kill Ya - Special teams haven't been special enough for the Capitals recently, and Thursday night's 4-3 loss to the Bruins was a harsh reminder. Boston scored a pair of power-play goals - including the game-winner with 45 seconds remaining in regulation - in three tries with the extra man while Washington went 0-for-4 and failed to register a shot on net in its last three power play opportunities.

On its first power play of the evening midway through the first period, Washington got a couple of Alex Ovechkin shots on the net, had another shot miss the mark, and Boston's Brandon Carlo blocked three Caps shot attempts, two from Ovechkin and one from Tom Wilson.
Over their final three power play opportunities of the evening, the Caps managed just one shot attempt - a Justin Schultz bid that missed the mark - in the six minutes.
"I think we've got to work a little bit better as a five man unit," says caps center Nicklas Backstrom. "Everyone's got to help out in the breakout, and everyone's got to help us just hunt some pucks down. The breakouts aren't going to be perfect at all the time, so we've got to dig in there and make sure we come out with pucks.
"But we've just got to start shooting a little bit more I think, and obviously we have our sniper out there, but I think other guys have got to start firing pucks, too. There's too much just passing it around, and we've got to start creating some more, shooting some more pucks, and eventually, after that, that's when things are going to open up."
Since the calendar flipped to 2022, the Caps have won only twice in eight games (2-4-2), and they rank 28th in the league with a 14.3 percent power play efficiency rate. They're tied for 26th in penalty killing prowess at 68.2 percent.
The Caps are 9-2-3 this season when they score on the power play, and they're 13-8-6 when they don't. Washington is 0-4-1 this season when allowing two or more power-play goals in a game.
Hit Somebody - Thursday's game with the Bruins had a bit of a playoff feel or tenor to it. Boston came into the game with a burr under its collective saddle following a 7-1 home ice humiliation at the hands of the Hurricanes on Tuesday, and the Caps were trying to string together consecutive victories for the first time in three weeks.
The result was a feisty, contentious and hard-hitting affair. Two Boston players - forwards Anton Blidh and Brad Marchand - departed the game with upper body injuries after taking hard hits from Wilson and Garnet Hathaway, respectively. Washington's Nick Jensen left the game late in the second period with an upper body injury as well, but the source of that injury wasn't obvious and isn't known.
Already playing without John Carlson (COVID-19 protocol) and Dmitry Orlov (NHL suspension), the loss of Jensen left the Caps without three of their top four defensemen in the third period of what was a tie game.
"It was a really hard game, especially for the [defensemen] for sure," says Caps blueliner Martin Fehervary. "At the end, we played with five [defensemen]. A lot of hits and a physical game, so it was really hard."
Of the 36 skaters who suited up for duty on both sides, only seven failed to record a hit on the night, two Caps and five Bruins. The two teams combined for 63 hits in the 60 minutes, with Washington holding a 36-27 advantage.
Nick Of Time - Backstrom netted his first goal of the season on Thursday in Boston, scoring what was a huge goal at the time, midway through the third period. Less than a minute after Jake DeBrusk was credited with a go-ahead goal for the Bruins to give Boston a 3-2 lead, Backstrom scored from the right circle to knot the game at 3-3.
Wilson and Aliaksei Protas did the heavy lifting down low on the forecheck, and Wilson issued a nice feed to the front for Backstrom. The helper extended Wilson's point streak to four games (three goals, two assists).
"That's two games in a row where Nick's been good, Tom's been good and Protas has been good," observes Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "They've done a good job in the offensive zone at keeping pucks pinned in. That goal is perfect example of working below the dots and finally getting a look to Nick and making the most of it."
Backstrom has collected a point in six of his eight games this season (one goal, five assists). He is now 14 points shy of joining Ovechkin as the only two players in franchise history to record 1,000 career points.
Great Eight Update -Ovechkin assisted on Evgeny Kuznetsov's first-period goal, extending his point streak to six games (three goals, three assists). With 27 goals and 56 points on the season, Ovechkin currently leads the NHL in both categories.
The Caps' captain played in the 1,238th game of his NHL career on Thursday night in Boston, moving him into a tie with Doug Weight for 100th place on the League's all-time games played ledger.
By The Numbers - Washington was limited to a single-game season low of 17 shots on net … Boston blocked as many shot tries (17) as the Caps got on net … Schultz led the Caps with 22:10 in ice time … Ovechkin and Brett Leason led the Caps with three shots on net each, and Ovechkin led the way with nine shot attempts … Matt Irwin led the Capitals with six hits … Michal Kempny and Trevor van Riemsdyk each blocked four shots to lead the Caps … Kuznetsov won seven of 11 face-offs (64 percent).