BOSTON — It’s been an uncharacteristic problem for the Bruins over the last few seasons and it reared its ugly head once again in a rare victory against the big, strong and heavy Washington Capitals on Monday night.
The Bruins' lack of intimidating toughness and absence of a real fear factor coming from their lineup is allowing them to get pushed around by the bigger, tougher teams in the NHL.
It was most definitely true in their loss to the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final when the Blues beat them up over the course of seven games, and it was just as true in a 7-3 win over a Washington team that was clearly ready for Christmas break at TD Garden.
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Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton and Adam McQuaid aren’t walking through that door, and it was plainly obvious once the Capitals started throwing bone-rattling hits that forced both Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy to exit the game.
Even everyday energy players like Gregory Campbell, Andrew Ference and Johnny Boychuk would drop the gloves to stand up for a fallen teammates back in the day against bigger, sometimes tougher foes in statement action that nobody can tread on the Bruins.
That was not what happened on Monday night.
Once the Capitals fell down 4-0 following the first period, they became less interested in winning the two points and instead guys like Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin and even T.J. Oshie decided to inflict as much damage as they could on the Bruins ahead of the three-day holiday break for the NHL. The Caps were taking runs at the B’s with impunity and there wasn’t much that the Bruins were doing about it.
“Clearly, [the Capitals] are a physical team, and there’s two different approaches. You can match them hit for hit or you can use your foot speed and smarts, and stay out of the box and try to frustrate them. I think what we did early in the first period was probably a smaller lineup for us, so it’s something to think about that way,” said Bruce Cassidy. “At the end of the day, you do have to win your puck battles against them, against big men, which is a challenge for any team in this league. That’s why [Washington] is in first place. I think they do it well.
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“You have to keep their D in check from joining the rush. I thought for the most part, [Dmitry] Orlov, Carlson, we did a good job with them. They got some point shots, but not joining the rush. That’s kind of the formula, easier said than done, against Washington, because they win a lot of hockey games, even though coaches all around the league probably have good gameplans. They’ve just got good players and they play their system well.”
The first Wilson play was just a good, hard and punishing hockey hit where it looked like Krug’s shoulder absorbed most of the impact. But it was part of a pattern of Washington’s big-bodied players taking turns running at the Bruins.
Finally, Wilson speared David Pastrnak between the legs in the third period and started a brouhaha when Pastrnak stepped up to the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Wilson after taking another hit from the Capitals behemoth in front of the Washington bench.
Both Pastrnak and Marchand scrapped with the much bigger Wilson, who ultimately started throwing punches at Pastrnak through the linesmen holding No. 88 down to the ice in a spot where he couldn’t defend himself. Connor Clifton watched this exchange and tried to hook Wilson with his stick instead of dropping the gloves and stick, and ripping Wilson off from his position attempting to cheap shot the NHL’s leading scorer.
It might be time for “Cliffy Hockey” to realize protecting his teammates is part of his job description as a bottom pairing defenseman who doesn’t exactly light it up offensively.
That all preceded Oshie cleaning McAvoy’s clock in the closing minutes of the third period on a play where the Capitals forward wasn’t playing the puck at all. Instead he was a heat-seeking missile looking to wipe out the vulnerable Bruins defenseman, and Oshie did it without any real pushback from a Bruins team trying to protect a lead very late in the third period.
Cassidy hinted after the game that he thinks some kind of supplemental discipline may be coming for some of the Capitals players, particularly if the Marchand rule is applied.
“I could see it developing, but I didn’t see the final hit. There were a few incidents tonight, I imagine player safety might be a little bit busy. I know if it was a guy like a [Brad] Marchand of the world, they’d be getting looked at, so there was a few spears and some of those [things],” said Cassidy. “I don’t want to say it was clean or dirty because I have not looked at it, and I imagine it will get looked at. They’ll have to judge that accordingly, right?”
The NHL Player Safety Department may or may not punish the Capitals for their actions on Monday night, but it’s clear the B’s didn’t do much to make them pay on the ice. It felt like Washington didn’t have much invested in whether it was a win or a loss from the opening puck drop, and instead took their pound of flesh.
Some of the Bruins' toughness issue is that guys like Zdeno Chara and Kevan Miller were injured, and David Backes and Chris Wagner were healthy scratches as Cassidy went with the aforementioned smaller, faster lineup against the Capitals. Some of it is that bottom-6 guys like Brett Ritchie, Sean Kuraly and Clifton aren’t throwing their weight around in games where the Bruins need somebody to step up and answer the bell.
Some of it is also a philosophical issue with the Bruins team-building as they are heavily leaning toward speed and skill, and favoring collegiate players that have no real background in the world of good, old-fashioned, old-time hockey. These are not your father’s Big Bad Bruins and they won’t be again unless muscle, toughness, and striking fear into the hearts of opponents becomes a priority in the B’s management box once again.
That means acquiring players who will deter some of what the Capitals were doing in the final 40 minutes of Monday night’s win, and that means drafting some tough, hard-nosed players with size and skill as well. Let’s not forget that Wilson, as underhanded as he can be with some of his activity, is a first-round pick whom Washington clearly and richly invested in before he became the NHL menace he is today.
So those players are not mythological unicorns that no longer exist as some would have you believe.
Monday night was a big win for the Bruins to snap a stretch of eight losses in their previous nine games, and a nice little two points against a Washington team that’s routinely dominated them over recent history. But it also felt like a loss in some ways because the B’s were again exposed as a smaller, more skilled team that now relies on the league — and on-ice officials — to protect them as a club that can no longer handle it all by themselves.
That was never the Bruins' way in the past and it still feels a bit odd that it’s the direction they are headed in again this season.
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