There is still plenty of hockey left, but the Boston Bruins might look back at Saturday night’s Game 1 of their best-of-seven playoff series against the Washington Capitals as one that was a missed opportunity.
Nic Dowd redirected a TJ Oshie slap shot from the point 4:41 into the first sudden-death overtime past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask to give the Capitals a 1-0 series lead with a 3-2 victory. Boston twice trailed in the game and twice rallied to force overtime, but was unable to ever get the lead at any point in the game.
Here are three takeaways from a lost opportunity for the Black and Gold as they look to even the series in Game 2 Monday night.
1. Very physical game, but not unexpected.
As expected the Capitals set the tone in the first period with a very physical period, but Boston did not back down and returned the favor in the second period and was the more physical team.
The Capitals never missed an opportunity to take the body and they won’t as the season goes along. Will the Bruins be able to withstand the physicality of Washington for how many ever games this series goes?
It was good to see the Bruins not back down from the Caps, but if Washington continues to assert their physical presence, will the wear and tear of a schedule that is every other day affect Boston? We’ll see.
Washington finished with 51 hits in the game, compared to 41 for Boston. Game on!