PRESEASON RECAP: Boston finishes the preseason flat, shut out 2-0 by Caps

Well this bodes ill.

First Period:

Nothing happened.

Well, the Caps sure happened. Brandon Bussi stopped a bunch of shots, but then…well…the Bruins got a power play, and recently that’s been a real danger.

As Aliaksei Protas made abundantly clear in a shorthanded bid off a faceoff. 1-0 Cap

Good god, gentleman. Play with something approaching pride.

Mercifully, nothing else happened, and the 2nd period began.

2nd Period

Nothing happened so hard I went and got Ramen instead. It was pretty good, highly recommend.

3rd Period

The Boston Bruins continued to do mostly nothing, and then on a failed board battle, the Capitals got the puck in the defensive zone, with Trevor Van Reimsdyk putting a difficult backhander past Brandon Bussi, which ended the scoring at 2-0.

Game Notes

• Your TOI leader was Parker Wotherspoon, who played 21:27 TOI tonight.
• This roster was effectively the P-B’s with Brad Marchand and a couple of the younger NHL defensemen, and if you wanted a good reason to think of the Providence roster as a mostly spent asset…I give you this game. A completely flat effort in front of their goaltender who had to do so much work, very little in the way of dangerous shooting, caved in at 5v5, and in general looking completely out of their depth against a mostly complete Caps roster. It’s hardly fair, but there’s always the chance to surprise…and The B’s couldn’t have surprised the anxious tonight.
• If there was any bright spots, it’s that Brandon Bussi managed to save 30 shots in a game where he effectively received no shooting support at all, and as a result the .938 SV% he received was as hard earned as anybody’s. I didn’t love TvR’s goal on Bussi, but otherwise he was tracking shots pretty darn well.
• If there’s anything I can say about this preseason; it’s that we have seen both the best and worst case scenario for this squad, especially given that they will be dealing with the Swayman debacle the entire time until he’s either signed or traded or a secret third thing. Best case? They continue to largely control games even with their individual deficiencies, play a strong team game, and support their goalie. Worst case…unfortunately looks a lot like this; completely incapable of generating meaningful shooting. I’m pretty confident we won’t see this kind of effort nearly as much during the regular season, but man if there isn’t this sinking feeling that it might negatively impact this team with a panic decision if it comes back at the wrong time. I really hope I’m wrong, though. There’s plenty of players to root for here.
• The best thing about this game is that it didn’t count.