The Washington Capitals blanked the Boston Bruins 2-0 at the Verizon Center snapping their three game losing streak.
Braden Holtby stopped all 32 shots he faced on Sunday against Boston, marking his career-high eighth shutout of the season and second shutout against the Bruins in 2014-15. Holtby has also recorded career highs in games played (61) and wins (33) this season. The 6’2”, 208-pound goaltender has registered four shutouts, a 1.90 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in his last 20 starts (1/28-3/15). Holtby is the second goaltender in Capitals history to record at least eight shutouts in one season, joining Jim Carey (nine shutouts in 1995-96) and his 33 wins in 2014-15 are tied for the fourth-most wins in a season in Capitals franchise history. Olie Kolzig registered 41 wins in 1999-00, 37 in 2000-01 and Jim Carey earned 35 wins in 1995-96. Since the start of the 2012-13 season, Holtby leads the NHL in shutouts (16). The Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, native leads the NHL in ice time (3,559) and games played (61), ranks second in shutouts (8) and saves (1,584), tied for fourth in wins (33) and goals-against average (2.17) and tied for seventh in save percentage (.925).
The Capitals are 12-4-3 against the Atlantic Division this season and have earned a point in 12 straight games against Atlantic Division foes (10-0-2). The Capitals have outscored opponents 39-16 during that span and have not allowed a power-play goal, killing 39 consecutive penalties.
John Carlson scored his career-high 11th goal of the season on Sunday against Boston. With his goal, Carlson passed Ken Klee (43) for ninth place on the Capitals franchise goals by a defenseman list. Carlson has earned nine points in his last 13 games (2/17-3/15: 4g, 5a). The 6’3”, 215-pound defenseman has set career highs in goals (11), assists (36) and points (47) this season and Carlson ranks tied for sixth among NHL defensemen in assists (36) this season, tied for fifth in primary assists (19) and seventh in points (47). Carlson also ranks fourth in the NHL among US-born skaters in assists and first among American defensemen in goals during the last three seasons (27). Carlson leads the Capitals in time on ice per game (23:03), ranks second in assists and third on the team in points.
Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom (71) rank tied for second in the NHL in points. Ovechkin leads the League in goals (45) and Backstrom leads the NHL in assists (53). Backstrom and Ovechkin have combined to register the most points (142) and goals (63) by any teammates in the NHL this season. Backstrom has earned an assist on 29 of Ovechkin’s 45 goals this season and since Backstrom entered the NHL in 2007-08, he has recorded an assist on 169 of Ovechkin’s 369 goals (45.8%).
The Capitals defeated the Sabres 6-1 on March 7 at Verizon Center in the teams’ last meeting. Curtis Glencross registered a season-high three points (1g, 2a) and Alex Ovechkin (1g, 1a), Jay Beagle (1g, 1a), Mike Green (2a) and Nicklas Backstrom (2a) added two points each. Braden Holtby stopped 16 shots to earn his career-high 32nd win of the season. Washington set season highs in shots (45), shots in a period (23), shots allowed (17) and win margin (5).
A milestone was reached in the win as Nicklas Backstrom passed Michal Pivonka and Alex Ovechkin (418) for first place on the Capitals franchise assist list. Backstrom tied Pivonka for first place on March 7 against Buffalo, reaching 418 assists in 263 games fewer than Pivonka (825). Backstrom earned two assists on Sunday, marking his 16th multi-assist game of the season. The Gavle, Sweden, native has tallied seven assists in his last seven games (3/1-3/15: 7a), recorded 24 assists in his last 27 games (1/16-3/15: 5g, 24a) and leads the NHL in assists (53) and power-play assists (27), ranks tied for second in points (71) and power-play points (30) and tied for third in primary assists (26). Backstrom has reached the 50-assist plateau in five of his eight NHL seasons and became the first member of the 2006 draft class to reach 500 points on Oct. 22 and the first member of the 2006 draft class to reach 400 assists on Jan. 27. Since he entered the NHL in 2007-08, Backstrom ranks third in the League in assists (420), trailing Henrik Sedin (464) and Joe Thornton (447).
Postgame Quotes:
Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz on responding after the previous game…
“I think this shows that there is good leadership in the room. They helped make it happen. It was a great response. They had the closed-door. Let’s get urgent, let’s get playing well, and I thought they came out with a good start. They had a lot of urgency, a lot of detail, a lot of commitment. They had big penalty kills when needed and had great goaltending from [Braden} Holtby. We had pretty good structure against a pretty good team.”
Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz on Tom Wilson’s play…
“He played really, really well. He was playing really hard and his minutes were up quite a bit. I pulled him back towards the third a little bit because he was running out of gas a little bit. I moved Jo-Jo [Marcus Johansson] back up there, but he [Wilson] had an excellent game. He set the tone. Talk about emotional control that you need in big games – with what [Brad] Marchand did to him that it is easy to react. You’ve got to take one for the team, and he did. That’s a huge display of courage and commitment to your teammates.”
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom on the play of the Capitals…
“We played a good game overall, for 60 minutes tonight. That’s our key to win. That was playoff hockey, right there. You play a really good team out there today, and that’s how the playoff game is going to be, so you have to get used to it if you want to play in the playoffs.”
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom on being the Capitals franchise leader in assists…
“It’s a nice bonus. It’s always [nice] when you get credit for something; maybe you’ve done something good. But, you have to remember, that I played with a lot of good players over the years and without the teammates, coaches and the fans, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Washington Capitals defenseman Nate Schmidt on getting his first goal on the season and being healthy and back on the Capitals…
“I don’t know how many people it went off of, but getting that first one of the year feels great. It was a big goal for us at the time and it really kind of put us ahead for the rest of the game. You just try to make the most of the opportunities as you can, and hopefully, you get the regular call. You can’t do much more about that right now. Being able to contribute tonight was huge, and being able to help the team out, especially [tonight]. We needed a push tonight, we needed to play. They were playing really well, and we needed to match their intensity and play better, and I thought we did that throughout the whole game.”
Washington Capitals defenseman Nate Schmidt on what the Capitals did differently…
“I just think that it was a desperate game. We needed this game moving forward. Just for us and the team moving forward. You play another good team, a playoff team, and you really want them to see where you are at. And, we couldn’t come out slow again, because if you come out slow against a fast team like them, a highly skilled team, you get yourself in trouble. We thought that we would try a little bit of the opposite tonight – being the first on pucks, getting pucks behind their D – and I thought we did a really good job of that.”
Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien on the tough start, but good effort by the Bruins in the game…
“I think the first five minutes, I think [the Capitals] had about ten shots. With what they went through yesterday, I think the message was clear to them that they had to come out harder. Again, [we] probably weathered the storm, probably not as good as we wanted to, but they got that power play goal. Again, when you play with the lead it’s a lot easier. We missed some opportunities and the second goal kind of hurt us a lot. [The] puck is going wide and hits [Greg] Campbell and deflects in, so they got a break on that. We just tried our best to get ourselves back in the game, but couldn’t get that goal.”
Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien on the play of the Bruins…
“We got some games against coming up, and I think we’ve got an opportunity to bounce back here. I think our guys put up a good effort today, and unfortunately you come up short, but it wasn’t from a lack of trying. I think overall we had a decent effort.”
Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask on the start of game Caps strong start to game…
“I don’t know if we were ready for that or not, but they definitely came out hard and piled up some shots in the first five minutes and then things kind of settled down from then. “
Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask on the scoring chances again the Bruins…
“I don’t know what the scoring [chances were], probably a little over ten scoring chances…The shots kept coming constantly, and sometimes there were better chances and sometimes they weren’t. It was one of those games that you kind of felt like you were in it the whole game.”
Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask on playing against the Capitals, specifically goaltender Braden Holtby…
“Obviously, when you give up the first goal it’s tougher, but I thought we just got better as the game went on. We just couldn’t score on [Braden] Holtby again. It’s another shutout for him in this game. It’s funny how it goes, kind of like [Carey] Price and [Holtby] against us, they seem to if not shut us down, then let in one goal max. It’s tough to win when you can’t score on these guys, but we battled hard today. We had a couple really almost open nets too, we just couldn’t score.”
Boston Bruins forward Chris Kelly on the Bruins’ effort…
“It wasn’t the first five minutes that we wanted, but we knew they were going to come out hard, and they came out extremely hard. Tuukka [Rask] made some big saves for us, get our feet under us, and I thought as the game went on, like I said, we got better and better. A bounce here, a bounce there, maybe the outcome would have been a bit different.”
Boston Bruins forward Chris Kelly on going up against the Capitals…
“[The Capitals] are a big, strong, heavy team. You look at their forward group up there, they’ve got some big guys that compete well, and they’ve got D [defense] that can move the puck, and obviously a goalie that’s playing well, so they’re a good hockey team.”