In Washington, Braden Holtby made 27 saves to earn a 3-0 shutout of the Boston Bruins Wednesday night.
For Boston, it was a bad loss given their race for the post season; they are tied with the Ottawa Senators for the final wild card spot with two games left.
Braden Holtby made 27 saves in blanking of Boston – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Just the way we let [Washington] dictate the start of the game, especially in a game like that, you know we needed a lot more,” Boston center Patrice Bergeron said. “It was definitely a disappointing start. … We definitely have to turn the page. Bottom line is we’re still in control if we take care of business, so it’s worrying about Florida now.”
It was Holtby’s third straight shutout of the B’s.
“We seem to play well against them,” Holtby said. “I don’t know if it’s coincidence or what. They’re a team that we’ve had a lot of respect for in the past, so when the Bruins are our opponent, it gives us a little extra jump knowing that we can’t give them anything. It’s good that we played so well against them this year.”
The shutout was his ninth of the season, tying him for the league lead.
“It’s fun to see [Holtby] play and he’s bailing us out when he has to,” said forward Marcus Johansson, who scored the Capitals’ third goal. “It’s all you can ask for.
“We were into our game and when we play like that, we’re rolling. We’re tough to beat when we’re doing that.”
Tuukka Rask made 30 saves in the loss.
“I think we’ve had some good starts, but today for some reason we just weren’t as sharp in the beginning,” Rask said. “Sometimes it’s going to cost us and sometimes it isn’t, and today it did. Obviously when you play [an important] game like today, you’d think you’re ready to push, but it doesn’t happen sometimes.”
The Bruins came out slow and never were able to generate much energy.
“The first period really was the downside of our game tonight,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. We didn’t do enough to generate even a power play.”
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