Bruins Lose To Capitals, Finish Round-Robin Play Without Any Wins
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Bruins were the best team in the NHL from October through March. In August, they've yet to win a game.
The Bruins fell 2-1 to the Capitals on Sunday, officially completing their round-robin action without any victories. The Bruins also did not hold a lead at any time during their three round-robin losses to Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, and Washington.
As a result, the Bruins will enter the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the No. 4 seed in the East, playing against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Tuukak Rask made 23 saves for Boston in the loss, while Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots for Washington.
The game was scoreless late in a sleepy first period, before the Capitals scored on just their second shot of the game. Rask stopped a redirected shot from Nicklas Backstrom at the left faceoff dot and directed the rebound to Zdeno Chara, but T.J. Oshie surprised Chara by spinning free and swatting the puck off Chara's stick and into the net.
The Bruins had largely controlled play to that point of the period, outshooting Washington 6-1, but the lost faceoff led to the late goal that Boston in a hole at the end of one.
The score remained 1-0 in favor of Washington through the second period, during which the Caps outshot the B's 13-10.
The Capitals doubled their lead just 2:49 into the third period, when Tom Wilson got past the Charlie McAvoy and went backhand to forehand to flip one past Rask's glove hand.
Jake DeBrusk made it a game again just past the halfway point in the third, when he sneaked a quick shot through Holtby's five-hole after getting a subtle feed from Onrej Kase.
That would be it, though, as the Bruins couldn't generate much offense with the goaltender pulled in the final minute of the game.
The Bruins lost out on the top two spots in the Eastern Conference playoffs after losing their first two games in the round robin -- first to Philadelphia, then to Tampa Bay. With their bid for a top spot gone, Sunday's game became a battle for third place in the conference.
