Post-Game Talk: Game 1 EDSF - Washington 3 BRUINS 2 F OT - Caps lead series 1-0

[Jean_Jacket41]

The Bruins have never lost a playoff series under Bruce Cassidy when losing Game 1

They got the Caps right where they wanted.

Bruins beat these losers in 6.

 

[kthx]

As mentioned yesterday I did not see the game yesterday.
How was Tuukka?

Did he keep us in this one?

I'd say he played like Halak did last post-season.
Not good but not exactly that bad either.

 

[Alicat]

Did they make any line changes at practice today?

I just got home from a walk and lunch and figured I’d ask here versus on the cesspool of Twitter.

 

[TwineTickler]

Surprised that Butch isn't going to change anything up front. Concerns me a bit. Hopefully the players make him look good.

 

[missingchicklet]

So you sit who

Lauzon was tied for the team lead in hits with 8, and led the team in blocks with 4, but he also made some pretty bad defensive plays. I'd still keep him in the lineup, though. Griz is overmatched physically, but Bruce obviously is not taking him out of the lineup, as he led the Bs in mins in game 1. That leaves Reilly, who I really like, but I did not see him really bringing anything special to the ice last night other than putting himself out of position from time to time.

 

[bme44]

Hope that pair is better than last game very soft game by both

 

[JCRO]

Did they make any line changes at practice today?

I just got home from a walk and lunch and figured I’d ask here versus on the cesspool of Twitter.

To me that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be like changes though. Just no one taken out/put in.

Haven’t seen anything about lines on Twitter but I may have missed it

 

[BAD BOY]

Lauzon was tied for the team lead in hits with 8, and led the team in blocks with 4, but he also made some pretty bad defensive plays. I'd still keep him in the lineup, though. Griz is overmatched physically, but Bruce obviously is not taking him out of the lineup, as he led the Bs in mins in game 1. That leaves Reilly, who I really like, but I did not see him really bringing anything special to the ice last night other than putting himself out of position from time to time.

Lauzon only sits if he’s injured . IMO

 

[Jean_Jacket41]

Best player on each line:

Pasta
Hall
Kuraly
DeBrusk

D played well. McAvoy was a horse.

Marchand and Bergy uncharacteristic bad game. They will rebound. Krejci created nothing. Smith battled and is the reason for the 2nd goal.

Bruins 2nd goal was lucky. All 3 of Wsh were. Broken stick on 1st leading to goal. Puck bouncing everywhere on 2nd. Perfect deflection on the OT one.

Tough loss. Bruins will respond and get back to Boston 1-1.

 

[missingchicklet]

Lauzon only sits if he’s injured . IMO

Agreed. No point in my wanting Tinordi in for toughness if they take out Lauzon, who showed more toughness than any other B last night. I am interested to see if Lauzon continues to improve as the playoffs progress. This is great experience for him.

 

[Gordoff]

fully agree - it was tipped but it was tipped directly into chest. He then let it poop thru his legs and out his butt into the goal. Lots of problems tonight but tuukka, as usual, was not a difference maker. He was not better than Anderson who is a third string goalie. Same predicament as always … not his fault but did nothing to help out

While I generally agree with this I have to say that the Bruins did little-nothing to test Anderson. I expect a much better showing in game 2, if not this can be a surprisingly short series.

 

[I Hate Philadelphia]

Bad: The Miller/Lauzon pairing every time they are on the ice. Should be used as little as possible and only against the Caps fourth line.

Good: we just barely lost with our top line not even showing up for the game, if they just wake up we should be OK.

 

[JCRO]

Bad: The Miller/Lauzon pairing every time they are on the ice. Should be used as little as possible and only against the Caps fourth line.

Good: we just barely lost with our top line not even showing up for the game, if they just wake up we should be OK.

Caps get last change and fully exploited the third pairing and third line as much as they could last night.

I’d expect to see some shifting in the lines for next game cause that third lines stats weren’t pretty. Nor was the eye test

 

[Jean_Jacket41]

Blaming Tuukka, to me, just flat out says you didn’t actually watch the game.

Blaming Tuukka for the loss shows bias and/or low hockey IQ.

 

[Alicat]

To me that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be like changes though. Just no one taken out/put in.

Haven’t seen anything about lines on Twitter but I may have missed it

Thanks!

 

[b in vancouver]

As I posted before I'm not worried about the team going forward, however I am worried about Pasta. He has been off all season. It's like he's finally hit a sophomore slump later in his career. Marchand did hit a similar thing in his career and then figured it out, so I hope Pasta does too. He needs to seriously work on his skating in the off season.

It's not his skating. He needs to work with Marchand and Hall on how to protect the puck better. He lets it drift, like Krejci often does, but doesn't quite have the awareness of when to bring it back in. I have faith he'll adjust but it's something you see over and over with offensively gifted players that have early success - they seem to forget that opposing NHL players are also pretty good and will adjust accordingly.
He needs to lower himself at times and keep the puck closer to his skates. Will also make him stronger on his stick as he'll have better leverage. You see him do it with his shot. Seems like a small adjustment but it's not. If he can figure that out this summer he'll be top 5 in scoring next season.

 

[bobbyorr04]

No matter who plays for the Caps tomorrow, the Bs have a more talented top 6 and a better goalie. The Caps won game 1 because they were the hungrier dogs. All hands need to be on deck to make a deep playoff run. That message hasn't reached a few Bruins.

Maybe on paper, but it sure didn't look that way last night

Some of the B's looked intimidated out there, and they had way too many missed shots on net

Throw Clifton in next game to give the Bruins a spark ..he's not afraid of anything

 

[Troublesome 85]

Lol

No call for Jeremy Lauzon’s flying punch against TJ Oshie

 

[nORRis8]

I'd say he played like Halak did last post-season.
Not good but not exactly that bad either.

Obviously hope we win the next game however if we lose and Tuukka save percentage flirts under .900....I would be fine with give Roadhouse Swayze a shot.

Some here love Tuukka.
I mean loooooooove him.
That's fine.
I just want the guy that gives us the best shot.

 

[bbfan419]

Switch Ritchie and DeBrusk, Ritchie has size, but man he just seems to float too much, in a 4th line role he could be our version or Patrick Maroon, Coyle with DeBrusk and Kase if he is healthy if not maybe Kuraly. Wagner needs to sit, his job is to crash and bang and when he is not doing that he does not have much else to offer, rather have Frederic or Kuhlman.

 

[Alicat]

Lol

No call for Jeremy Lauzon’s flying punch against TJ Oshie

Good. You don’t hear the Bruins talking about Ovi’s charge and launch into Krejci. That set the tone for last night.
Caps can dish it but cry when someone does it to them.

 

[The National]

wait, was he not already? I wasn't really paying attention to matchups, but noticed Miller out there a lot against Ovi and it seemed like a huge mismatch. Didn't think he was actively avoiding the Mac/Gryz vs Ovi matchup, though. If so....why?

I love Bruce but he tends to overthink these things sometimes, especially in the playoffs.

I think he’s probably trying to keep them, especially Grz, away from them so they can push more offense and worry less about shutting them down.

Laviolette did the opposite with his top pair, he wasn’t worried about matching them up with our top line, but they played horrible so hard to gauge it.

If Bruce gives that top pair, a top line matchup Reilly may be better suited on the bottom pairing with Miller this series, and let him feast on the lesser matchups.

 

[JCRO]

Lol

No call for Jeremy Lauzon’s flying punch against TJ Oshie

I probably have my homer goggles on but I really don’t think there’s anything there. Oshie rotated last minute and Lauzon followed through.

Caps player does this and “it’s hard hockey” or Ryan Whitney is making a video making fun of everyone crying about it

 

[Gordoff]

Such a fine line. I love Rask, but he's lost a lot of series to goalies that were IMO no where near as good as he was, so I can see why some might be all over him....but the Bruins scored one goal in 51 minutes vs Craig Anderson..

In fairness to Rask, the Bruins seem to play down to other teams too often. In this case though they were passive in the offensive zone and afraid to fight to the front of the Caps goal. The over passing, the poor shooting percentage, hitting the post etc can't go on.
In the defensive end, as others have said, they need to stand up at the blue-line and protect their territory, end the easy entries and allowing the Caps to set up camp in the B's end and wearing down our defense.
Gryz looked panicked, Miller made some bad outlet passes and Riley looked surprised by the onslaught. We need physicality and men with the chops to stand up to whatever the Caps throw at them.
The ticky-tacky east-west crap that Marchand and Pasta were trying was ineffective and a waste of time and energy. At one point (in one instance) Marchand skated 2 times in circles with the puck trying to lose a Cap only to lose the puck. Wasted energy. Chip & Chase, bang their defense and get body's to the slot to create some havoc and this can be a short series due to Caps injuries and goaltending. If not, even if we win in 6-7 games, we're going to have a beat up team for the second round (if we get there). The Caps are extremely beatable but the Bruins need to be willing to pay the price all over the ice. Make Anderson eat rubber.

 

[analyser]

People call the Caps losers, well have you looked at last night's score.
If the Bruins come up on the short end again tomorrow I think we will be threading towards the qualifying criteria for "Losers".

We are not superior to the other 3 clubs in the division and it is time they realized it and work their asses off. Nothing is going to be handed to you because you are the Boston Bruins.