B’s Youngsters Schooled by Caps

(Photo: Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire)

Going into Sunday night’s game against the Washington Capitals the Boston Bruins were missing a large part of their skilled defensemen to injury along with both of their starting goaltenders still out. Tuukka Rask’s groin injury continues to keep him from suiting up and Jaroslav Halak remained on the COVID-19 Protocol list.

The defensemen issue was worse than the Bruins had been expecting for sure. They had already planned to give Kevan Miller the night off. After all he’s been carrying some of the heaviest minutes for the d-men since his return while originally it was hoped that they could manage his minutes a little better. The injury list is almost longer than the roster: Charlie McAvoy (upper body); Brandon Carlo (upper body – concussion); Matt Grzelcyk (upper body) and John Moore had hip surgery that ended his season.

In addition to those defensemen, Trent Frederic was out Sunday night due to illness. Forward Ondrej Kase remains out with an upper body injury. Currently Carlo, Moore, Kase, and Halak are listed as injured reserve.

When the defensive pairings from the morning skate were announced, it was understood that the Bruins were having to pull in some young talent that may not yet be ready for prime time. The pairs were:

• Jeremy Lauzon and Connor Clifton
• Jakub Zboril and Steven Kampfer
• Jarred Tinordi and Jack Ahcan

In net Boston elected to start Dan Vladar, after seeing Jeremy Swayman make his debut at Philadelphia on April 6 in a 4-2 victory and then having him play the next two games: a 4-2 win over the Capitals on April 8 and a 3-2 loss to the Flyers on April 10. Swayman became the 10th goaltender in Bruins’ history to win his first two NHL starts.

The Capitals started Vitek Vanecek Sunday night who has done well against the Bruins and it goes without saying that there is some fire power on the Capitals’ rosters. However, how much fire power there was perhaps was not anticipated.

Within the first six shots on Vladar, Washington had three goals. The first, a power play goal was scored at 7:33 of the opening frame by T.J. Oshie assisted by Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov. The second came sixteen seconds later right off the next faceoff, when Lars Eller got an even strength marker assisted by Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway. The third one came at 9:42 from Conor Sheary, assisted by Dmitry Orlov and Daniel Sprong. Three shots and three goals for the Caps. Tinordi and Ahcan were on the ice for Ellers’ goal while Kampfer and Lauzon were the defensive pairing for Sheary’s goal.

Sheary, Nic Dowd, and Tom Wilson would notch goals in the second period, though the Bruins actually outshot Washington in that period.  Meanwhile Kampfer and Ahcan were the only players to be -2 at the end of the second period.

Boston would ensure that Vanecek would not get a shutout on Garden ice, when Craig Smith managed to put the Bruins on the scoreboard three minutes into the final frame while they were on the power play. The Bruins were 1-4 on the power play Sunday night while the Capitals were 3-6. It was evident that the lack of McAvoy or Grzelcyk at the top of the umbrella was cramping the abilities of the Bruins power play.

While the Capitals continued to make solid passes and keep Boston’s players chasing after them for much of the evening, the Bruins were unable to make much work. Some of the younger players could be seen thinking and making tentative plays. Some of the forward lines had also been shuffled with David Pastrnak returning to the top line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. This put Karson Kuhlman on the right wing of David Krejci’s line and Smith was moved down to the third line to play right wing with Charlie Coyle.

Watching the Bruins was like watching a team that hadn’t ever played together. They struggled to connect on passes and the inability to clear their end allowed the Capitals to set up shop in front of Vladar and get some quality shots on him.

When it was all said and done, Washington beat the Bruins 8-1. And while the Capitals had 15 players with at least a point (five had 2 points and Oshie had 3 points), the Bruins had 15 players on the minus side of the plus/minus. Kampfer, Ahcan, and Kuhlman each were -3 on the night, while Nick Ritchie, Krejci, Anton Blidh and Tinordi were all -2.

The Bruins saw what happens when forced to slot in a number of players who are still playing at an AHL level, and the result wasn’t pretty.