Capitals shutout Bruins 2-0 in 2024 preseason finale
The preseason is finally over Washington Capitals fans
The Washington Capitals took care of business on home ice as they pitched a 2-0 shutout over the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena as Charlie Lindgren stopped all 17 shots that he faced while the Caps put up 32 on the other side.
Aliaksei Protas gave the Caps a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded goal up front to bring the house down as we are one week away from Opening Night against the New Jersey Devils. That came at the nine minute mark of the opening period.
Nobody scored in the second but Trevor van Riemsdyk would double the lead on a backhanded shot to beat Bruins goaltender Brandon Bussi. That would be all the Caps would need on the 19th anniversary of Alex Ovechkin making his Capitals debut in front of the entire NHL world.
Spencer Carbery said this on Andrew Cristall via Tarik El-Bashir on X
I thought he was solid again tonight. Felt like it was very similar o the way he's looked all camp. There's some things for being a smaller guy... bumped off the puck a little bit, puck battle stuff. But then you see the breakaway. Had another good chance in the first period. He does a lot of good things and he's around the puck so he's... earned and proven that he deserves to be here right until the bitter end.
Monday marks training camp roster cuts. Carbery added, "We have to get to 23, and there's some waiver stuff that potentially comes into play. So, yeah, difficult decisions. it's hard this time of year... we have to make some difficult decisions and it always sucks."
Carbery added on Lindgren's 17 save shutout:
I thought that was an important start for him - and a hard game to play in. Sometimes those games where you're just standing there and you're not getting a lot of volume, and then all of a sudden O has a turnover and now (Lindgren) has a Grade-A right in the slot. You got to be on your toes and you've faced two shots... I was happy for him to play the way he did because he did get tested at 1-0 where he made a few saves to keep that one-goal lead.
Next up for the Caps is opening night on Saturday Oct. 12 from Capital One Arena against the New Jersey Devils.