Given all of the above, there was certainly no reason to drag it out to overtime or worse, a shootout. Washington's Michael Raffl made sure that didn't happen. As the clock ticked down to the final seconds of regulation, Raffl fired a shot from a seemingly impossible angle, beating Boston netminder Jeremy Swayman with less than three seconds on the clock.
Raffl's goal - his first as a member of the Capitals - snapped a 1-1 tie and gave the Caps a 2-1 regulation win in the season finale.
"It's always good to get a win," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I think that's important. I said it this morning; you never know where those two points will play out at the end of the season; it's either going to be a win or a loss. I think just from the standpoint of turning the page and closing the book on the regular season, I think it's good with that regard.
"Obviously a lot of their team was missing. Our team was probably not quite as engaged or as sharp as we should be or normally are, but it was enough to get the win."
As the time ticked away, Raffl went down the left-wing wall in Boston ice to collect a Justin Schultz hard-around. With the blade of his stick below the goal line, Raffl scooped a shot over Swayman's back and into the far corner of the cage.
"As soon as Schultzie rimmed the puck, I looked up and I saw there was like six seconds left," recounts Raffl. "They gave me some room - the [defenseman] there. It was the right play at the right time, I guess."
After a scoreless opening stanza, Boston got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead just after the midpoint of the middle period. Bruins winger Jake Debrusk carried into Washington ice along the right-wing wall. He issued a feed to late-arriving defenseman Jarred Tinordi, who took the puck down to the goal line before putting a pass to the front for Curtis Lazar, who chipped it home from the top of the paint for a 1-0 Boston lead at 10:11 of the second period.
Late in the frame, Washington's fourth line scored a workmanlike goal less than half a minute after a television timeout.
Nic Dowd won a draw in the Boston end, and the Caps put heat on the Bruins there, keeping the puck alive and in the zone with the work of the entire five-man unit. Dowd made a good play along the left half-wall to retain possession, putting it to Zdeno Chara at the left point. Chara put a shot toward the net, Garnet Hathaway got a piece of it, and after Jeremy Swayman made the stop, Carl Hagelin buried the rebound from in tight, tying the game at 1-1 with 3:45 left in the second.
While Washington stalwarts Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom were both back in the lineup on Tuesday after missing Saturday's game against the Flyers with lower body injuries, the Bruins rested virtually all of their key regulars and dressed a lineup more reminiscent of an early preseason game. The temporary Bruins acquitted themselves well.
Washington won the first 40 minutes from the standpoints of territory and possession, but the Bruins rallied and won those battles in the third.
"I thought they played better as the game went along," says Boston coach Bruce Cassidy. "Guys played with a little more conviction. We tried to encourage them that they belong; 'Hey, this is a good team we're playing, circumstances are a little bit unique, the last game of the year, etcetera.' For some of them, it might be the last game they play. And for others, if we have the run we want to have, then opportunity may knock for you down the road, so put your best foot forward.
"I thought they responded well. Obviously as the game went along, some of the younger guys felt a little more comfortable. That's normal; guys haven't been in the lineup for a while. Other guys stepped right in and did a good job that had been playing obviously."
