The Capitals played their 3rd pre-season game tonight, losing to the Boston Bruins 2-0.
Braden Holtby started the first two periods and kept his record clean, stopping all 21 shots he faced. Holtby has been solid this pre-season, stopping all 40 shots he's faced, albeit not intense, regular NHL play.
Pheonix Copley took over in the third and let in a Zdeno Chara PP goal. He stopped 8-9 shots.
Simon Gagne added an empty netter late in the third.
The Caps were without Ovechkin and Backstrom tonight, but veterans Joel Ward, Troy Brouwer, Eric Fehr, and Marcus Johansson suited up. Rookies Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky also played, totaling 30:55 of ice time between them. Burakovsky received the third star of the night with 4 shots on goal in 16 minutes of play.
Burakovsky has been making himself quite comfortable the past few games, and it should be interesting to see if he can crack the lineup.
The Caps are 1-2 so far this pre-season, which doesn't mean anything. However, in the last three games, I've noticed that some of the players look nervous, and I'm not talking about rookies or guys here on a try out.
Some of the veterans on the team look to be trying too hard to impress coach Trotz, or maybe they are just trying to get used to yet another system, knowing full well that this season must be a success.
Mike Green, John Erskine and Brooks Orpik also played tonight, leading a young defense that should make Hershey very proud this year.
2014 first round draft pick, Jakub Vrana also played, seeing significant PP time, but was unable to register a shot on goal in his 15:17 worth of ice time.
The Caps were outshot 31-26, including a 16-7 barrage by the Bruins in the second period.
Washington is set to play the Bruins again on Friday at Verizon Center which will mark their 4th of 8 preseason games.
More to come...
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