Bruins Continue Embarassing Slide

By Greg in Bruins, Featured, Top Story ⋅ February 3, 2010 at 12:38pm ⋅ Post a comment

Patrice Bergeron couldn't get the puck back as Alex Ovechkin shot and scored in an empty net to finalize a 4-1 win for Washington. The loss was the Bruins' eighth in a row. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Another game, another loss for the streaking Boston Bruins who fell to the Washington Capitals at home Tuesday night by the score of 4-1. The Capitals are playing well as they notched a franchise record with 11 straight wins with the victory, while the Bruins lost their eighth straight game. Boston has not won a regulation game since January 5th as they went 3-9-2 last month and have not picked things up in the first game of February.

The loss brought the Bruins closer to .500 as they now sit in 12th place in the East with a record of 23-22-9. For the Capitals, they are now the top team in the league with 82 points with a record of 38-12-6.

Washington is the league’s highest-scoring team while Boston is still the lowest-scoring team, but the Bruins did lead at one point. The Bruins held the advantage over the Caps after the first period, until Washington came back in the second to tie things up, and then scored three goals in the third period on only nine shots to take sole possession of first place in the league.

“We’ve got to try and keep our heads up,” Boston center Marc Savard said. “That’s another good effort against the best team in the East and we deserved better.”

Tim Thomas started in goal for the Bruins and stopped only 22-of-25 shots-on-goal as he saw his record to fall once again. He is now 13-15-7 on the year. Jose Theodore started for the Canadiens and was the top player in the game as he was able to go out and stop 41-of-42 shots-on-goal for his 18th win of the season. The last time Theodore suited up against the Bruins was on October 1, 2009, another 4-1 win for the Capitals.

“Jose was tremendous,” Washington Head Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Once we got the first goal in the third period, it just really took the wind out of their sails and they’re saying, ‘What do we have to do to score?’

First Period

Nearly seven minutes into the game, David Krejci scored his 10th goal of the season on the two-man advantage for the Bruins. He was assisted by Savard and Dennis Wideman. Bruins up 1-0
What caused the two-man advantage for the B’s were penalties by Matt Bradley and Alexander Semin of the Capitals.

Second Period

It only took two minutes into the period before former-Bruin Mike Knuble scored his 19th goal of the year to tie things up. He was assisted by Tom Poti and Nicklas Backstrom on the play. Game tied 1-1.
Where’d the Bruins go???

Third Period

Just five minutes into the period Brooks Laich broke the tied game with his 17th goal of the season. Semin added another point to his total by assisting Laich on the play. Capitals up 2-1.
Less than three minutes later, Boyd Gordon scored his second goal of the season to give Washington a little more breathing room. He was assisted by Poti and Brian Pothier on the play. Capitals up 3-1.
As if Boston thought they had something going by preventing Alex Ovechkin from scoring they were wrong. Ovechkin added his 36th goal of the year on a unassisted empty net shot with less than a minute to go in the game. Capitals go up and win by the score of 4-1.

The Bruins will next take on the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at home. The Bruins are 0-1-1 against Montreal this season and are only three points behind the team from Canada in the Northeast Division.

Game Notes

Boston went 1-for-6 on the power play while Washington went 0-for-4.
The Capitals were out-shot 42-26 but still managed to pull off a three goal win.
Washington had more penalty minutes (12) than Boston (8).
The Bruins (23) out-hit the Capitals (19) and won more faceoffs (38) then the league’s top team (34).
Mark Stuart missed the game after having surgery on Monday on his broken left pinkie finger. He’s expected to miss at least four weeks.
The Bruins are 0-6-1 since their last win at home, which was on January 1 at Fenway for the Winter Classic.

Tags: Alex Ovechkin, Boston Bruins, Bruins, David Krejci, Jose Theodore, Washington Capitals