Boston Bruins look to extend lead as Washington Capitals aim to strike back – NHL Playoff Preview
Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins started their playoff campaign pretty well and both teams went neck and neck in first of the seven-game playoff series, but it was the Bruins, who finally managed to provide the only scoring move of the game in overtime
to get victory.
However, that game has become an old story and both teams are now preparing for their second game of the series.
It is needless to say that both of them have to work out well to improve their game-play on offence apart from repeating the defensive heroics from the last game.
The matchup will take place on Saturday, April 14, 2012, at TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts.
The last meeting
In the first game of the playoff series between these two teams, goaltenders dominated the game.
Bruins goaltender, Tim Thomas, made 17 saves in the game while Capitals’ goalie, Braden Holtby, made 29 saves, but he gave away one in the overtime in which Chris Kelly scored for Bruins to give them the victory.
What are they thinking?
Even it came in the overtime, a victory nevertheless gave Bruins an edge over Capitals and Boston’s coach, Claude Julien, is considering a great achievement. He said:
"You're going to hear the losing team say `whether we lose in overtime, or 10 to nothing, it's still a loss.' So we say the same thing about a win. A win's a win. I thought we did a pretty good job defensively, didn't give them a ton of scoring chances."
He added:
"Obviously, we'd like to maybe be a little bit better offensively and create a little bit more, which I thought we did early in the game.”
Despite losing the game, Capitals were hopeful of displaying much better performance in the second encounter.
Capitals’ captain, Alex Ovechkin, was impressed by his goalie, who did not get the due support from his offence. Ovechkin said:
"The next game will be different. We know we can play against them. Holtby played a h**l of a game.”
Predictions
In spite of the fact that both goaltenders tried their level best to keep their team alive in the game, it cannot be ignored that Capitals were even unable to make attempts on goal. They have more work to do on offence and that’s what favours the Bruins,
who just need to beat the goalie.
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