WASHINGTON, DC — The Washington Capitals never trailed during their game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, but that wasn’t good enough to earn them the much-needed two points.
After two game-tying goals from Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy in regulation, the Capitals and Bruins went scoreless in overtime to force a shootout. Both teams had star goaltenders in net — Washington’s Logan Thompson and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman each represented their country at the Olympics last month — and the two lived up to their reputation in the skills contest.
A combined 17 skaters went without a goal before rookie Fraser Minten broke the stalemate, securing a Bruins victory.
“I just saw lots of guys try shots. Remembered seeing a couple videos of him maybe biting on a fake in the prescouts, so I just went in and tried to watch for that, and it ended up working out,” Minten said of the game-winner.
Here’s Ian Oland’s play-by-play of the shootout from RMNB’s live blog:
Tom Wilson told reporters postgame he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played in a nine-round shootout, while Thompson guessed he’d likely last faced one during his rookie season with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Clocking in at nine rounds, Saturday’s shootout was the Capitals’ longest since they fell to the Panthers after 20 rounds on December 16, 2014 — a game that still holds the NHL record for longest shootout. In that contest, however, the two teams combined for 11 total shootout goals, compared to the lengthy clean sheets of Thompson and Swayman.
Per NHL Stats, no shootout has gone more than eight rounds without a goal since January 18, 2022, when the Islanders and Flyers went goalless until New York’s Oliver Wahlstrom scored the game-winning goal in the ninth round of the shootout.
The normally-verbose Spencer Carbery had a simple answer when asked if it was hard to pick new shooters after so many rounds.
“Yes,” he said.
Washington has now gone 1-6 in the shootout this season, with its only win coming against the Detroit Red Wings on January 29. The team’s shooting percentage of 21.2 (7/33) ranks 14th in the NHL.
After the initial three-man lineup of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Ryan Leonard, and Dylan Strome, Carbery deployed Anthony Beauvillier, Connor McMichael, Alex Ovechkin, Jakob Chychrun, Ethen Frank, and Aliaksei Protas. Swayman made saves on all nine.
“Would you like to score on one of those opportunities? Absolutely,” said Carbery. “We did it in Detroit; we didn’t tonight.”
Despite allowing just one goal on nine attempts — not to mention his strong showing in regulation and overtime — Thompson wasn’t happy with his performance when speaking to reporters postgame.
“I needed one more save, and I feel like that’s kind of been the result of my play lately, just haven’t given the guys one more,” Thompson said. “So it’s frustrating, and it is what it is.”
The rest of the Capitals, meanwhile, fiercely disputed Thompson’s evaluation of himself.
“LT was phenomenal,” said head coach Spencer Carbery. “I know that’s been a bit of an issue for us, for LT specifically. He hasn’t been happy with his shootout play this year. I’ve talked to him specifically about it. He’s mentioned it. Normally, he’s really good. His numbers historically are really good in the shootout. For whatever reason, this year it’s been a little bit off, and tonight he’s dynamite.”
“He’s a stud,” added Matt Roy. “He’s our rock, pretty much. Every night, he’s making crazy saves for us, and it just shows in that shootout there. He’s a guy that we trust in the pipes, and we’re happy to play in front of him.”
The Capitals now sit five points back of the Detroit Red Wings — who have two games in hand — for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
