It’s just preseason, it’s just preseason, it’s just preseaso-
1st Period
Things got started with Morgan Geekie being the recipient of a baubled attempt to leave the zone by the Capitals and hammering it home with gusto! 1-0 Bruins!
And then…the rest of the first period happened.
First, Sonny Milano was the recipient of an unprotected slot as he caught Mike DiPietro looking on a broken up possession, and evened things up. 1-1 Everybody…
Then the man who assisted on Milano’s goal, Hendrix Lapierre, got the puck off
a quick little passing play behind the net, and the Caps took the lead. 2-1 Caps.
Washington would add to it’s lead with a Sonny Milano breakout, as the save on Victor Soderstrom went all the way out to the blueline and to Ethen Frank, who sprung Milano. 3-1 Caps.
Finally, to end things out, Ivan Miroschnichenko stripped the puck from Mason Lohrei, and he set up Bogdan Trinyev to tip the puck in at point blank range. 4-1 Caps.
Thus ends the first.
2nd Period
The Bruins did make some progress on unraveling this boondoggle early on! Jeffrey Viel won a puck battle and threw it out in front, and Patrick Brown put a missile past Logan Thompson in order to cut the lead in half! 4-2 Caps.
The Caps however, answered back. Sonny Milano and Hendrix Lapierre led the charge out of the zone, and the only person back for it was Mason Lohrei; who couldn’t stop them from setting up Ryan Chesley to put the game’s scoring away. 5-2 Caps.
Third Period
There was nothing much worth mentioning here, and the Bruins took their L and went home, though not after a brief shootout. Simon Zajicek did what he could…
…it just wasn’t enough for the Moral victory.
Bruins lose 5-2.
Game Notes
- Charlie McAvoy was the leader in ice time, with 21:01 logged.
- While saying in earnest that it is in fact still preseason and thus none of these results should be counted as anything more than noise…
- Most of the young guns had a pretty quiet night, and their on-ice impact reflects that. Matthew Poitras had the most impact of any of the young players, and that was largely due to being the target of some comical levels of violence against him through almost no fault of his own. The B’s youth needs to be better going forward of course, but I do feel there’s hope for some. Lysell was extremely active all night, and goshdarnit, he was trying so hard to get something to happen…he just happened to send the puck flying in space between Bruins. We shouldn’t get overconcerned about this one, but we do need to start seeing some progress here.
- If there was an area of the game Boston still has a lot of work to do, it’s speed in the neutral zone and in the defensive end, and that’s across all players. Washington was able to get the breaks they did because multiple players were already well behind the play by the time the scoring player had their shot. The Bruins surrendered a lot of the slot and high slot to Washington, and a part of it was that Washington was just able to get there before Boston was; they had better mobility through open ice, and were able to stay on the attack longer because they could shake their man without having to commit too much physically. Hopefully adding more of the main roster to this will improve it. If not? Oh dear.
- Mike DiPietro finished his night with a resounding .762 SV% on 21 shots, and while I don’t necessarily blame him for about half of the shots he faced, given that the Caps could’ve been shooting a collective 90% on expected goals, I do think that he struggled a bit with getting set for saves and that did kill him down the stretch, not that he was getting much help. Simon Zajicek meanwhile only saw 6 shots and then played out the shootout, but he did what was expected of him and didn’t make the problem worse. I freely admit to being a fan of his work on account of his aggression and big yellow-jacket pads, but he did put in the work to get noticed because he went out of his way to make his saves look good, especially in the shootout…with the exception of that last shot. That was pretty weak.
- David Pastrnak is gonna have a 80+ point season and he’s gonna have almost no help because oh my god the Bruins had all sorts of great chances and just could not stuff them behind Thompson enough for it to matter. Just endlessly frustrating.
- Andrew Peeke playing almost 19 minutes cannot happen again. Full stop. Even Charlie McAvoy being about even on impact…he just can’t do that. I don’t care if you have to bring up a college guy. Don’t do that.
- Whatever, man. It’s preseason. They get another shot at this on Tuesday against a slightly lesser prospect pool. If they still look like this in December? Then I’m worried.
Boston plays their next preseason game against the New York Rangers in Manhattan. That game starts at 7pm EST.
See you then!
