With less than a week to go before the trading deadline, the Bruins are giving the message to general manager Don Sweeney that this season just might be worth saving after all.
With perhaps their best performance of the season, the B’s defeated the Washington Capitals, 4-2, at Capital One Arena on Thursday night for their second win in a row.
For the second straight game, rookie goalie Jeremy Swayman posted another excellent performance (31 saves). Also for the second consecutive game, a Brad Marchand shorthanded goal stood up as the game-winner.
It was the kind of win about which the B’s deserved to feel good, and it clearly looked like they did.
“This is a big week for our team,” said Marchand. “We’re playing Washington, we’re playing Philly, one team we’re trying to catch and another team we’re trying to stay ahead. It’s crunch time. We have to continue to separate from teams below and we have to build toward playoffs, regardless of who’s in or out of the lineup every night (Charlie McAvoy missed his second straight game). We have a goal, and it’s progression. We don’t need to be great at the start of the year, it’s how you finish. And I think we’re building and get better at the right time.”
With the victory, the B’s pushed their lead to six points over the fifth-placed Flyers, whom they beat on Tuesday and play again on Saturday, and seven points over the Rangers. They’ve got two games in hand on both those teams, and three in hand on Pittsburgh, whom they trail by four points.
The B’s raced out to a 3-0 lead, but the Caps got back in the game with two second-period five-on-three goals in 19 seconds. But Craig Smith gave the B’s an insurance goal on the power play with 3:05 left in regulation when he sniped a shot past old friend Zdeno Chara and then goalie Ilya Samsonov from the bottom of the right circle.
The bottom could have fallen out after those two two-man advantage goals, especially for a goalie playing in his second NHL game of his career. But while it’s still incredibly early in his development, Swayman is giving every indication that he’s got something special about him.
“Every one of the guys came up and said ‘It’s not on you’ but as a goalie, all I want to do is stop the puck and help my teammates,” said Swayman, who made a save on another breakaway shot earlier in the game. “I evaluated it quick and then forgot about it. Then all I was worried about was the next shot.”
The B’s also got something they haven’t gotten much of this season — a truly impactful outing by their fourth line. Anton Blidh, playing for Trent Frederic (non-COVID-19 illness), scored his first of the season and Sean Kuraly drew the late penalty that led to Smith’s power play goal. Chris Wagner had three hits and three blocks.
The B’s played a strong first period and took a 2-0 lead into the second. As good as the scoring opportunities were, their two goals were delivered from the hockey gods above.
They went up 1-0 just 33 seconds into the game when Jeremy Lauzon did what coach Bruce Cassidy has been begging his D-men to do — get their shot through the first layer of defense. Lauzon’s soft shot somehow made it through a maze of legs and sticks to Samsonov, who could not squeeze the puck and it trickled through him behind the goal line.
Then later in the period, a room service bounce gave Blidh his goal.
Things started to get nasty at the end of the period. Nick Ritchie decided to go with Hathaway and pounded the Cap with several rights to the head before driving him to the ice. Ritchie had taken a slashing penalty but the B’s killed that off.
It would just be the start of the B’s parade to the box, and it didn’t hurt them right away.
First, with Jakub Zboril in the box for tripping, Marchand scored his 30th career shorthanded goal and second in as many games as he made a beautiful move through the slot and beat Samsonov with a backhander.
But the B’s tempted fate a few too many times. Blidh took a bad, unnecessary slashing penalty in the neutral zone on Lars Eller, then collided with the Cap, earning what looked like a very soft roughing penalty.
Then, Zboril was tagged for a questionable interference penalty, giving the Caps a lengthy 5-on-3 opportunity. They made the most of it, scoring a pair of two-man-up goals just 19 seconds apart, first Alex Ovechkin four seconds after Zboril took a seat and then T.J. Oshie.
“It’s upsetting. It’s happened to us against a veteran team in Washington and against Pittsburgh a little bit. We’ve got some young guys in the lineup that are not going to get the benefit of the doubt on an extra nudge of push,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “Full 5-on-3s, those are tough, especially against this team, especially in a game that didn’t feel like it had as much emotion as some of the other ones we’ve had with them. … But at the end of the day, they were called. We addressed it in the room. Marchie and (Patrice Bergeron) and those guys were like ‘Hey, those are done. We’ve played well 5-on-5, let’s just get to that.’ We just moved on from it.”
Despite the open flesh wound those two goals produced, the B’s did not let it deter them from their mission on this night. They got another gritty efforts from Kevan Miller (25:18), who gave Tom Wilson a talking-to in warmups, and Lauzon (25:10), who appears to be regaining his confidence after some shaky outings upon returning from a broken hand.
And, of course, there was Swayman, who has stopped 71 of 75 shots in two games and can usually be seen laughing away through his mask during each play stoppage.
Said the goalie: “I’m just enjoying every second I can, while I can.”
