After winning their first ever Stanley Cup in 2018, the Washington Capitals have suffered not one, not two but three straight first round exits. Their latest one being a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
After winning the first game in overtime, the Caps thought they had an advantage on them. But since that miraculous win, the Caps have dropped four straight games including Game 5 on home ice to end their season.
It’s like something from that year seemed to elude them from this year. Or maybe it was a while ago. Maybe a certain boss didn’t give a certain job hopeful a good promotion or a raise after their championship level of work.
Nobody scored in the first period as the Caps led in shots 10-9. David Pastrnak got the Bruins on the board at 2:28 in the second and Patrice Bergeron made it 2-0 with a goal at 14:05. The Caps led in shots in the second period 20-4 which is ironic.
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The Caps did get back in the game. Conor Sheary followed his shot and rebounded it home 11 seconds in to pull the Caps to within one goal. T.J. Oshie and Dmitry Orlov were credited with the assists.
Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Caps would get. Bergeron put the game away with a goal at 12:25. 3-1 would be the final. The Caps outshot the Bruins 11-6 in the final period and 41-19 overall.
Alex Ovechkin spoke after the game about the loss via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“We play all season long for it, playing for a Stanley Cup. It’s hard to lose. Nobody wants to lose, right? We try do best what we can. Obviously, we can do better. It sucks. It’s a bad feeling when you know you have a pretty good team.”"
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette added:
"“I thought our guys pressed hard tonight, and I thought we played hard. They capitalized on the chances that they got. … That is kind of the way the series went. There were times when I thought we were good and we weren’t able to capitalize and weren’t able to produce, and at the end of the day you need to be able to produce and you have to put goals on the board.”"
In the end, the Capitals neither produced nor put up goals on the board and now they will enter another early offseason. This one will be filled with a lot of questions about the future of the team as the Rock the Red era is winding down.