Playing against NHL opposition for the first time since last Nov. 6, Sonny Milano scored twice and added a pair of assists and linemate Hendrix Lapierre also stood out with a goal and two helpers as the Caps rolled to a 5-2 win over the Bruins in Boston in Sunday’s preseason opener for both teams.
“I thought we were good throughout our lineup early in the game, and we were able to capitalize,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Lappy’s line obviously makes a huge difference early in the game to build a lead for us. They made a couple of excellent individual effort plays, whether it was knocking down out of midair and then going in all alone, or the play in the slot to Lappy. There were a lot of high danger or high quality chances they created.”
Milano was limited to just three games last season because of an upper body injury, and Lapierre struggled through camp and the first half of 2024-25 before being loaned to AHL Hershey midway through the season.
“I was still in shape; I never really stopped skating,” says Milano. “So I kept that going. Obviously, timing was sometimes a little tough, but even then I was watching all the games and my mind was still in it.”
During the Caps’ improbable late season run to the postseason in 2023-24, both Lapierre and Milano were instrumental offensive weapons for what was a scoring-starved team that season; Lapierre was fourth and Milano fifth on the team in scoring over the final third of that campaign; they trailed only Dylan Strome, Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson.
Lapierre centered for Milano and veteran Max Pacioretty in the latter stages of that season, and that chemistry came to the fore again on Sunday in Boston.
“We’ve always enjoyed playing with each other,” says Milano of himself and Lapierre, who didn’t talk to media postgame because he was receiving treatment. “I think in the second half of that year, it was us and Patch, and us three had great chemistry, and it seemed to be clicking again tonight.”
After Morgan Geekie staked the home team to a 1-0 lead with a one-timer from the slot at 6:17 of the first period, the Caps netted the next four goals of the frame in a span of 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
Milano wasted little time in getting the tying tally on the forecheck. Anthony Beauvillier put some heat on veteran B’s blueliner Nikita Zadorov below the goal line in the Boston end, forcing a turnover that went right to Lapierre in the left circle. Seeing Milano in the slot, Lapierre fed him, and Milano half-whirled and whipped a wicked backhander to the shelf, behind Boston netminder Michael DiPietro. Milano’s first goal came at 6:48, just 31 seconds after Geekie opened the scoring.
Milano and Beauvillier combined to force another turnover deep in Boston ice, soon after the midpoint of the period. From behind the net, Beauvillier put a sharp feed to the front for Lapierre, who buried a shot behind DiPietro at 11:33, a mere seven seconds after Washington lost a draw in the B’s end.
After Washington snuffed out a Boston power play, Milano struck again. Ethen Frank sprung Milano into Boston ice with nice cross-ice feed, and the latter had a step on Zadorov. From between the circles, Milano put an against-the-grain shot into the top right corner for a 3-1 Washington lead at 15:31.
Less than a minute later, the Henrik Rybinski line was heard from. Similar to the Lapierre goal, the Caps lost a left dot draw in Boston ice, but Rybinski and linemates Ivan Miroshnichenko and Bogdan Trineyev kept hounding the Bruins along the wall, preventing an exit and forcing a turnover. Miroshnichenko stripped Boston’s Mason Lohrei, and Trineyev lit the lamp from in tight at 16:18, closing out the scoring in the first.
“I know if I have the puck, I shoot,” smiles Trineyev. “It’s a very simple plan; I score.”
The two teams traded goals in the second. Patrick Brown pulled the Bruins to within 4-2 at 3:35, beating Logan Thompson with a snapper from the slot.
Just over five minutes later, the Caps responded with a transition goal. After shutting down a Boston offensive zone sequence, Milano sent Lapierre up ice on a 2-on-1 with Ryan Chesley riding shotgun. Lapierre fed him perfectly, and Chesley let his stick do the work, redirecting the puck past DiPietro, who departed in favor of Simon Zajicek at the midpoint of the middle period.
“Yeah, it was cool,” says Chesley of scoring in his first NHL preseason game. “Lappy made an unbelievable pass, and I was able to bury it.”
At the same time of DiPietro’s departure, the Caps inserted Garin Bjorklund in the crease for Thompson, who stopped 14 of 16 shots on the night.
Neither side scored over the remainder of the game, but the Bruins peppered Bjorklund a bit in the third, and he was the equal of every shot. Most impressively, he thwarted Arvidsson from in tight on a third-period power play, flashing the right pad to deny the veteran’s bid from the top of the paint. It was the first of four stops for Bjorklund on that power play, and he also stonewalled Arvidsson on a breakaway a bit later in the final frame.
Bjorklund finished with 13 saves, and he stopped all five shots in the gratuitous preseason shootout after the game, too. Ten of his 13 saves came in the final period.
“It was nice to get thrown into the deep end there, and get the first [save] on kind of a Grade A chance,” says Bjorklund. “It was a lot of fun to play in that rink and wear that jersey for the first time. It was exciting, a lot of fun.”
All in all, it was a good first game for the Caps, who will enjoy a richly deserved off day on Monday before continuing training camp on Tuesday. They’re back in game action on Thursday night in Hershey against the Philadelphia Flyers.
