The Washington Capitals looked lifeless in Game 4 as the Boston Bruins dominated in every aspect of the game to win 4-1 and take a 3-1 series lead. The Caps season could end as soon as tomorrow night in Game 5 on their home ice.
Nobody scored in the opening period as the Bruins had the edge in shots 11-4. The Caps had two power plays but couldn’t convert but killed off a penalty. After a dominant power play in the regular season, what has happened to this Caps team in the playoffs?
Brad Marchand put the Bruins up 1-0 with a goal eight minutes into the second period. 1-0 was the score after 40 as the Bruins outshot the Caps 12-9 in the middle stanza.
David Pastrnak doubled their lead on the power play with a goal 29 seconds into the third period. Charlie Coyle made it 3-0 with a goal at 1:03.
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The Caps would get a power play opportunity and finally get on the board with a goal by Alex Ovechkin from the office. This was no ordinary Ovechkin goal as he broke his stick when he was shooting the puck. John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom had the helpers. It was Ovi’s second goal of the playoffs.
Matt Grzelcyk added a goal at 14:50 to cap off the scoring for the home team as the Bruins cruised to a 4-1 win to put the Caps on the brink of elimination. That goal came on the power play.
The Bruins outshot the Caps 14-7 and 37-20 overall as the team looked lifeless out there. Ilya Samsonov made his second straight start in goal and made 33 saves. The Bruins won the face off battle 56 percent to 44 percent.
Lars Eller said after the game in an article by Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“We just need five guys wanting to have the puck. … We’ve just got to support each other a lot better than we are right now, attacking with five, defend with five, play faster. Everything. Every aspect of the game, we’ve got to be better.”"
The Caps 2021 season is on the line Sunday night. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington and USA. If you’re going to the game I’ll pray for you.
Backstrom added:
"“We have to want it. It’s obviously a big game coming up, and we have to be mentally ready. I feel like the previous three games before this we were a lot better than tonight. So we’ve got to be mentally ready, and we’ve got to play for each other. That’s maybe something we didn’t do tonight.”"