Boston Bruins on Paper - Fundamental failures at root of Bruins' woes

In one of the best psyche jobs ever on a sheet of ice, the public relations and technical crews of the Montreal Canadiens' organization left nothing to the imagination in their pre-game festivities, with pagentry galore and a holographic explosions as the crescendo whipping the 21,000 plus at Bell Centre in downtown Montreal into a frenzy.

The the first Habs goal sent the crowd into the stratosphere, the second sent them into orbit and the third buried the Boston Bruins - this time their comeback from a multiple goal deficit falling short as they fell to the Canadiens by a score of 4-2 in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series.

An uncovered Tomas Plekanec scores Montreal's first goal

The Canadiens now leads the best-of-seven series two games to one, with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

When the Habs went to their room at the first intermission with a 2-0 lead - leading in every single category that there is - one had to think that the Bruins had them right where they wanted them. 

Even down 3-1 at the end of the second after dominating the period, the feeling remained - and why not?  This is the team that erased two-goal deficits in each of the first two games of the series, both times putting multiple biscuits in the basket in fairly short order.

And they did score twice and had several chances to tack on more, but having to scramble from behind is a bad way to fly, and certainly isn't Bruins' hockey - at least not as far as bench boss Claude Julien is concerned.

"It's the way our team plays, we play until the end," Julien said of his team's typical 60 minute effort, "(but) If we start relying on how we play in the third period, we'll be making a big mistake."

Indeed, particularly when working hard, but not working smart - because to ignore the mental part of the game, the place where the most elementary of the fundamentals exist, is playing losing hockey.

Tuesday night, despite the all-out effort, the Bruins played a losing brand of hockey.

"We just made stupid mistakes which ended up costing us the game, so we have to get rid of those." Boston Goalie Tuukka Rask said after the game. "I don’t think we played bad"

No, the Bruins' didn't play badly but all three of the goals pinned on Rask were imminently avoidable and the mistakes made defied basic defensive fundamentals - something that is ingrained in the structure of this Bruins' team - and just goes to show that even the best teams are not immune to the harrowing trials of cutting corners and losing focus.

A perfect example of cutting corners came on the Canadiens' second goal with five minutes left in the opening period.

Montreal's P.K. Subban was in the penalty box for trying to decapitate Bruins' winger Reilly Smith with an elbow, and with the clock ticking down on a dismal Bruins' power play but the puck at the opposite end of the ice, Rask decided that he didn't need to tap his stick to let his teammates know that Subban was just seconds from freedom.

"That's part of my job, I have to let them know." lamented Rask in hindsight. "But I kind of looked at it and I thought we had everything under control and stuff like that, so I decided not to, and it ends up in our net."

Subban emerged from the sin bin just as teammate Lars Eller took possession of a loose puck after a brief scrum in front of the Canadiens' net - Eller escorting the puck into the neutral zone which drew defenseman Dougie Hamilton and centerman Patrice Bergeron to him and allowing the undetected Subban to slip behind the defense.

Carl Soderberg was the first to realize that Subban was uncovered - besides Rask, of course - but he had no realistic chance at making a play on the streaking defenseman.

The Canadiens also took advantage of the loss of defensive focus on their third goal as well, when forward Dale Weise released from the blue line just as Bruins' defenseman Andrej Meszaros launched a shot at Canadiens' goalie Carey Price - the shot was blocked by garden gnome Mike Weaver and the puck picked up by forward Daniel Briere, who found Weise uncovered behind Mazsaros and Johnny Boychuck.

"Yeah, they were stretching us out, but I don't think that's something we didn't expect," Meszaros said. "Obviously we're watching videos and so we know what to expect from them. We just need to execute better..."

"I think a couple times when we were shooting up from the point, they had one guy taking off and we didn't account for that guy right away." echoed fellow blue liner Kevan Miller, "We just need to do a better job of not letting guys get behind us."

Obviously, the Canadiens know that the Bruins' defensemen shoot from the point a lot, and their game plan of swarming defense in the neutral zone to not allow clean entry into their zone and clogging the slot once Boston establishes themselves in the attacking zone is made easier by Boston's long-range snipers, and if the high man loses track of the forward, it makes those bombs from the point that much more risky.

The Bruins are the more talented team, but the separation between them and the third-seeded Canadiens is not so much that they can let their guard down and cut corners and expect the fact that they won the President's Trophy for the best record in the NHL to win games for them - all that honor afforded them was home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, something that the Canadiens have already taken away from them.

"We’re a very resilient team and you see that, but you can’t play yourself out of the hole every night, as much as we want to," Bruins' self-appointed mouth piece, tough guy Shawn Thornton said after the game. "I think the positive is that it shows the character of this room again, that we don’t give up until the final buzzer."

Being resilient is great, and the never-say-die attitude is grand, but to play Bruins' hockey - taking the lead by force and stepping on their opponent's throats - is preferable to the losing catch-up hockey that they are playing now.

"In the first period we had an off period and it cost us a lot and we had to come back again." said Jarome Iginla, whose defensive miscue in the first period contributed to the first goal. "We can be better. And it's something now, this game is behind us, we'll go over it.  And as the second and third periods went along we started building our game again and we're going to need that."

What they need is to play the brand of hockey that got them here, and that means taking nothing - including the fundamentals - for granted.

Boston Bruins on Paper: Semi's with Habs opens Thursday; "KIL" line focused and ready

Milan Lucic was in tears.

Hard to imagine, right?  The left winger for the top or "KIL" line for the Boston Bruins, the man that Bruins' play-by-play man Jack Edwards sometimes refers to as a "Freight Train on skates", sobbing like a little boy that had his feelings hurt in a schoolyard scuffle...

...in 2003, Lucic was a kid - not the power forward with the cool nicknames that he has now - but a 14 year old growing up in Vancouver, devastated by not being selected in the 2003 Western Hockey League draft.

"He'd look at the computer every five minutes to see if anyone would pick him up," his mother, Snezana Lucic told the Vancouver Province in 2008. "Nobody picked him and at the dinner table that night he started crying. I asked what was wrong and he said, 'Nobody drafted me. I feel like quitting. I'm going to quit.'"

We've all been there, whether it was being told either directly or indirectly that we weren't good enough - be it in sports, our jobs, school or just life in general - and hopefully all of us had support from family and friends, but it takes more than that.  It takes a resolve to do what you want to do with your life.

"I told him that he was so much better than that." Mrs. Lucic continued, "I told him that his father and I were here to support him. If that's what you want to do (play hockey), someone is going to notice you, someone is going to pick you up. It was touch and go then. He was really disappointed."

Of course, it all worked out, the young Lucic was picked up by the Coquitlam Express of the Junior A British Columbia Hockey League, took his lumps and disappointments that year between not making the Express team out of rookie camp, but eventually ending up on the roster five games into the season...

...then made his debut with the WHL Vancouver Giants for the playoffs and played the entire next season for the Giants before being drafted - finally, someone wanted him - by the Boston Bruins with the 50th overall selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

The acceptance did something to Lucic.  In much the same way that rejection brought out the tears and doubt in 2003, being drafted in the second round by the Bruins in 2006 brought out the fire and confidence as Lucic tore up the WHL the following season, scoring 68 points in 70 games and capturing the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the Memorial Cup MVP.

After the tournament, Lucic signed his entry level contract with the Bruins and made the roster out of camp, and the saga of Milan Lucic has been well documented ever since...

It's tough to look at the 6' 4" 240 pound Lucic and try to remember that he is just 25 years old, the junior member of a Bruins' top line that includes future Hall of Fame inductee Jarome Iginla and being centered by fellow seventh year veteran David Krejci, the Krejci/Iginla/Lucic (KIL) line combining for 73 goals and nearly a third of the Bruins point total for the 2013/14 NHL season...

...a season that saw the Bruins ascend to the pinnacle of regular season success, taking the Presidents' Cup by one point over the Anaheim Ducks as the team with the best record in the league, and now preparing to meet the hated Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Semifinals after dispatching the Detroit Red Wings in the quarterfinals.

And it's Lucic's perseverance stemming from working through his early disappointments in Juniors that gives him such confidence in his game, and perhaps why he seems to carry a chip on his shoulder out on the ice - and also maybe why he and the rest of his Bruins' teammates seem to truly appreciate being involved in a seven game series with the rival Habs, cementing their names into hockey lore with each shift.

Game one in the series is slated for 7:30pm on Thursday evening at TD Garden in North Boston.

"So another Original Six battle that we get to be a part of, and a lot of hatred between the teams, the fans, the cities when it comes to this kind of rivalry. So we expect them to bring their best." Lucic said of the Canadiens, being careful not to upset the precariously placed apple cart of hate between the two rivals before the series even gets started.

Krejci, however, wasn't as diplomatic in his preview.

"They obviously got some little guys, so they like to play with the puck." the Czech centerman panned to NHL.com.  "They play fast and shifty. But I feel like, especially my line, I know we're going to be the line that's playing with the puck a lot,"

"It's going to be up to them to stop us." Krejci continued, lamenting his team's lack of aggression in the Red Wings' series. "We're going to be trying to make something happen and I'm going to try to have the puck on my stick all the time. That's going to be the difference between Detroit and this series."

It would seem that the 27-year-old pivot is suggesting that he was not satisfied with neither his performance in the series with the Red Wings, nor his line's - though the Bruins won the series handily, a point driven home by the remarks of Red Wings' captain Henrik Zetterberg after his team was eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday

"They really stick to their structure, they have been doing that for two to three years now and they know it works. I think experience and patience," Zetterberg said of what makes the Bruins so good, despite Krejci's disappointment. "I think if we look at them, they roll four lines, they do the same things, they get the puck out, they get the puck in. When the other team gives them an opportunity, they take advantage."

Krejci echoed what Zetterberg said, citing consistency and confidence.

"We've just got to trust the system and go out there and do the job." Krejci said. "I think we have a pretty good team here, and if we'll do our homework right then we should be able to get some results."

So between the pissed-off Krejci, the deeply emotional yet brutish Lucic and the ever-smiling, just-happy-to-be-here persona of Iginla, expect the KIL line to pick up their game a notch or two - which, to hear Krejci tell it, sounds like very bad news for the Canadiens.

"It is impressive." Zetterberg continued in his praise of the Bruins, whom he feels taught his young team a valuable lesson. "They are a good team, but they know how to win, they have been there. I think we have to realize how to play in the postseason, and if we do that and we really believe in what we do, we would have gone longer."

Really believing in what you do is why Milan Lucic is in the National Hockey League - and why the Bruins are the favorites to be hoisting the Stanley Cup in just a few short months.

Boston Bruins eliminate Red Wings; set sights on hated rival Canadiens

Detroit Red Wings' coach Mike Babcock finally made good on his promise to concentrate on his team's superior speed advantage over the bruising Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon.

Problem is, he made that same promise before Game 3 and Game 4, but instead ended up getting caught up in the physical, heavy game that favors the Bruins - and the results were predictable.  In fact, for the first four games of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series, the Red Wings hit everything in black and gold that moved, initiating a bit of gamesmanship in the clutches...

...but also setting a physical pace that they could not maintain for sixty minutes - but in a matinee performance at TD Garden in North Boston, they eschewed the rough stuff and played Detroit Red Wings' hockey, cranking on the afterburners, skating clean to preserve their energy and at times putting the Bruins' back on their heels.

It still didn't matter.

Eriksson celebrates his early goal...

Tuukka Rask stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal, also recording one assist, to win his fourth straight - Loui Eriksson, Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic providing all the offense Rask would need and Jarome Iginla added an empty net strike for good measure as the Boston Bruins eliminated the Red Wings in five games, winning the clincher by a score of 4-2.

Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg found twine for Detroit, Datsyuk logging his third of the playoffs - which accounted for exactly half of the Red Wings' offense in the series - and backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson was strong, allowing just one score at even-strength as he dropped his second straight while filling in for flu-sticken starting goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Boston now prepares to meet the hated Montreal Canadiens in the Conference semi-finals, the two Original Six franchises meeting in the post-season for the 34th time.

The speed and the puck-handling prowess of the Red Wings was evident from the opening faceoff, but neither played a part in either of their goals - rather, Bruins' defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Chara made life easy on both of Detroit's veteran snipers - Boychuk getting crossed up on Datsyuk's rebound score and taking out Rask before he had a chance to make the save, same with Chara on Zetterberg's tally as he clipped Rask in an attempt to get between his goalie and the shooter...

...and Iginla and Lucic are psyched over the game winner

...In effect, both assisting in Red Wings' scoring plays by interfering with their own netminder, to take nothing away from Detroit's effort as they managed to keep Boston's defenders busy in the attacking zone, but hurt their cause by failing to muscle their way into the slot for rebounds and by committing a dozen turnovers on the offensive end.

Conversely, the Bruins were - well - the Bruins.  That's usually enough, and Saturday was no exception.

Eriksson gave the Bruins an early lead, taking a Dougie Hamilton feed from deep on the right wing, shoulder-faking the one-timer to draw Gustavsson up into the slot, then dragging the puck to his backhand for the easy flip and a 1-0 lead three and a half minutes into the game, one of two power play goals on the afternoon for Boston.

The other one came with just four seconds left in the second period, just moments after Datsyuk tied things up with a man-advantage score of his own.

After a relatively clean skate for the first 30 minutes, a flurry of penalties marred the last half of the second frame, Datsyuk's tally coming with Lucic in the box for high sticking with a little over five minutes left in the period - then an Eriksson interference penalty coupled with a Johan Franzen holding infraction and a Brendan Smith cross check gave the Bruins a brief four on three man advantage...

...Chara finding a clear shooting lane in the high slot and giving Boston a lead that they would not relinquish - Torey Krug then picking off a Red Wings' clearing attempt on the left wing just over four minutes into the final frame and escorted it down the boards until Lucic was in place in the low slot to Gustavsson's glove side, then firing a centering pass across the crease that Lucic slapped in for the game winner.

Zetterberg's goal gave the Red Wings some late life with just under four minutes remaining, but a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty on Tomas Tatar stalled any plans for a comeback as the Bruins played keep away for the two minute minor, then held off the Red Wings for the final minute, who had pulled Gustavsson for the extra skater - Lucic taking control of a David Krejci faceoff win in the defensive zone, hitting Iginla at center ice who found the empty net for the dagger.

Special teams played a big part in the Bruins' win - as it had all series - the Red Wings managing just one goal in their seven power play opportunities while Boston converted two of six - and the Bruins also held advantages in most statistical categories including a wide margin in both hits and faceoff wins...

...advantages that Detroit held in the first four games of the series as they tried in vain to match the Bruins' physicality - proof that it really didn't matter which way Detroit played it, they simply couldn't breach the heavy layers of the Bruins' structure, hard as they tried.

Next up, the Montreal Canadiens, who can play the physical game with a hop in their step - and pose a very stout and very real challenge to their longest and most despised rivals in the Bruins.

Iginla pots game winner in OT; Boston Bruins take 3-1 series lead over 'Wings

The Boston Bruins aren't that difficult to figure out.

They are physical.  They are resilient.  They come straight ahead and hammer you for no other reason than to eventually take away your will - and if your best shot isn't enough to put them away, well, Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena happens.

It was about midway through the second period when the Bruins started to take control of their Game 4 matchup with the Detroit Red Wings in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series - having already yielded goals to defenseman Niklas Kronwall and centerman Pavel Datsyuk, when the Red Wings started to look spent...

...their high energy, frenetic pace giving way to Boston's heavy-footed, even-keeled puck control game - the pucks that they were having trouble getting to along the boards early in the game starting to find the range, the middle of the ice that Detroit's speed game offered them now closed off, and the backcheck of the Bruins turning into forced turnovers and transition offense.

No, the Boston Bruins are not that hard to figure out.  Trying to stop them is the tough part.

Down 2-0 through half of the match, defenseman Torey Krug ripped a slap shot from the high slot to get the Bruins on the board, Milan Lucic tied the game early in the third and Jarome Iginla ended it 13:32 into overtime, answering the Red Wings' best shot in typical Bruins' fashion, taking both a 3-2 win in Detroit on Thursday night, and a 3-1 series lead headed back to Boston.

The Red Wings gave it everything they had through 60 minutes, going all-in for a game they knew they absolutely had to have, having lost two straight and in danger of being down 3-1, even pulling team captain Henrik Zetterberg down from the press box to provide more offensive fire power and perpetual healthy-scratch Todd Bertuzzi to be a physical presence.

But Zetterberg was clearly less than 100% returning from back surgery and Bertuzzi, while initially making a big-time screen in front of Boston Goalie Tuukka Rask, was eventually neutralized by the physicality of the Bruins, who made sure to punish the 39-year-old Bertuzzi every time he tried to front Rask in the low slot.

Halfway through the opening period and the Bruins down a man after Justin Florek took a high-sticking double minor, the Red Wings scored the game's first goal just four seconds into the power play, Kronwell driving the puck past Rask from above the right circle directly from a Datsyuk faceoff win, Bertuzzi preventing Rask from seeing the puck until it was already past him...

...Kronwell returning the favor just over four minutes into the second period, picking up a puck that Rask had directed behind the net off of a Justin Abdelkader offering, sliding a pass to Datsyuk who had drifted into the low slot and easily beat Rask into the net that he vacated to stone Abdelkader.

With eight minutes gone and Bruins' defenseman Kevan Miller in the poke for retaliating against an Abdelkader hold just 13 seconds earlier, Bertuzzi joined him for interference on Zdeno Chara, the team skated four-on-four until Miller's penalty expired, Krug crushed his shot from the high slot in the waning seconds of the brief Bruins' power play.

That was the beginning of the end for the Red Wings.

Krug's goal had a horrific effect on the crowd and, subsequently, the Red Wings themselves as the Bruins slowly began tilting the ice in their favor - but missing several point-blank chances at Detroit's backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson throughout the rest of the period, though Gustavsson's luck ran out just over a minute into the third...

...Bruins' centerman Carl Soderberg taking a perfect Dougie Hamilton stretch pass and racing down the right wing, escorted wide of the net by Red Wings' defenseman Brian Lashoff - but just before the big Swede passed behind the net he slipped the puck to Lucic, who was point-blank on Gustavsson's glove side, and he jammed it through the five hole for the equalizer.

Shift by shift, the Bruins slowly took control of the pace of the game, spending more and more time in the attacking zone, Marchand missing an opportunity to pot the game winner into a wide open net late in the period - and by the time the game reached overtime, the Red Wings were completely on the defensive, and it was just a matter of time before the Bruins found dirty ice.

That happened with six and a half minutes left in sudden-death, Dougie Hamilton ripping a shot from the penalty box side dashers and Jarome Iginla redirecting it from the right circle, sending it in on Gustavsson, who could do nothing about the puck deflecting off of defenseman Danny DeKeyser's skate for the game winner.

Joe Louis Arena cleared out quickly after Iginla ended the game, perhaps too disappointed to realize that there probably will not be another game in Detroit this season, their Red Wings being down three games to one and headed to Boston for Saturday afternoon's elimination game at TD Garden - but at least they can be consoled in that coach Mike Babcock had the right idea...

...his game plan perfect through half of regulation.  But how hard is it to prepare a game plan for the Bruins?  Babcock knew what was coming and prepared his team the best he could - and it wasn't enough.

No shame in that, though, because these Bruins are so fundamentally sound, so well conditioned and so well coached that it almost seems unfair.  Almost.

Boston Bruins inching closer to President's Cup; Visit Winnipeg tonight

The race for the President's Cup has taken a turn to the west, as the Anaheim Ducks have overtaken the St. Louis Blues in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference, and sit just two points behind the Boston Bruins for the best record in the league.

The Bruins' lead over the Ducks in the race to secure home ice throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs by earning the best record in the National Hockey League is razor thin, as is the tie breaker of best ROW (Regulation and Overtime Wins), both teams tied at 50.

Anaheim has two games remaining and the Bruins three which means that Boston has every advantage on the way to the best record with the two point lead and a game in hand, and though they can't clinch that Cup with a win tonight in Winnipeg, they can make it nearly impossible for the Ducks to catch them.

What does that mean to Bruins' coach Claude Julien?  Not much, unless he has a fantastic poker face or a genuinely perverse sense of humor, as he is expected to continue rotating his veterans as healthy scratches to get them a bit of extended rest before the post-season begins next week.

Top line centerman David Krejci is expected to play on Thursday night after being given a night off on Tuesday, missing the Bruins' 4-3 shootout loss in Minnesota - and taking his place in the press box will be second-line centerman Patrice Bergeron, joining Chris Kelly and defenseman Kevan Miller.

"It is a good luxury, but at the same time, you never want to get out of the lineup," Miller sighed. "Guys always want to play. You can tell someone’s sitting up there, they’re not happy about it, but it is good going into the playoffs to have guys be 100 percent rested."

Ryan Spooner, who was an emergency call-up from AHL Providence due to Kelly's back spasms, will be joining the team in Winnipeg and will most likely skate in Bergeron's spot.  Jarome Iginla is also expected to be in the lineup after missing the past two games.

Luckily, Julien has a lineup that caters to giving players a night off every now and then, as they are widely considered to have the best third and fourth lines in the National Hockey League, as well as a wealth of developing talent at the AHL level such as Spooner...

...but the seventh year bench boss isn't taking it easy on the players in practice, as he held a spirited skate on Wednesday.

"You’ve got to have a practice like we did today. It was based on being sharp and some intensity and it doesn’t have to be long; it just has to be good," Julien told beat writers after the practice. "Guys have to understand that these last few games do mean something. It means staying sharp."

"You don't want to start the Playoffs on a negative note, because you're just kind of coasting through your last few games." he explained.

Boston

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Loui Eriksson

Brad Marchand - Ryan Spooner - Reilly Smith

Daniel Paille - Carl Soderberg - Jarome Iginla

Jordan Caron - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensemen

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Andrej Meszaros

In Net

Tuukka Rask

Winnipeg

Forwards

Evander Kane - Bryan Little - Michael Frolik

Eric Tangradi - Olli Jokinen - Blake Wheeler

Eric O'Dell - Jim Slater - Matt Halischuk

Carl Klingberg - Patrice Cormier - Anthony Peluso

Defensemen

Tobias Enstrom - Paul Postma

Mark Stuart - Jacob Trouba

Adam Pardy - Zach Redmond

In Net

Michael Hutchinson

Iginla nets two as Bruins clinch Atlantic

The Boston Bruins have the most goals scored of any team in the third period by a wide margin, but even more impressive is that they have allowed fewer goals in that final frame than any other.

Bruins' goalie Chad Johnson makes one of his 33 stops

What does this mean?  Standing alone it could indicate many things, but when coupled with the fact that the Bruins allow the least number of opening period goals and are into the top 10 in the middle frame, it means that they have the league's top rated defense and get absolutely filthy goaltending.

Really doesn't matter who's in net, either, as both Tuukka Rask and Chad Johnson together are probably the best one-two punch between the pipes in all of hockey - so any Washington Capitals' fan that thought they were catching a break drawing Johnson in Saturday afternoon's matinee against the Bruins were apt to leave the Verizon Center disappointed.

And they did.

For a while on Saturday afternoon, Caps' goalie Braden Holtby matched Johnson's mastery against several point-blank Bruins' chances, the sole reason that the teams went into the room sharing a scoreless tie at the first intermission as the defense in front of him was slowly eroding...

...completely crumbling apart shortly into the second, a Jarome Iginla breakaway goal less than three minutes in triggering an avalanche of pucks into the Capitals' net as the hard-working Bruins outclassed a devil-may-care Washington squad 4-2 to clinch the Atlantic Division title.

Iginla potted a second goal later in the period, just 41 seconds after a Carl Soderberg redirection of a Patrice Bergeron power play drive got past Holtby - the Bruins scoring three goals in a five-and-a-half minute span of the middle frame, then spending the remainder of the period shoving the sluggish Caps around and using Holtby for target practice.

Soderberg had two helpers in addition to his goal, the first a heads-up play on the puck in the neutral zone after exiting the penalty box early in the second, winning a race to the puck on the opposite side of the ice and centering a pass to Iginla, who had split the Capitals' defensemen at the blue line and raced in unopposed for his 29th goal of the season...

...his second an attempt to redirect a Dougie Hamilton drive on the man-advantage in the third that instead slid right to a charging Bergeron who neatly tucked the biscuit in behind Holtby.

In between the two was his successful redirect and Iginla's tremendous effort for his 30th of the year, a textbook follow of his own shot from the right circle, the puck bounding into the high slot off of Milan Lucic's stick and Iginla snapping a shot through Hotby's pads.

The Capitals' did show some life toward the end of the second period - perhaps aware of the Bruins' stifling dominance in the final 20 minutes - and managed to push a rebound past Johnson with 10 seconds left in the frame to close the gap to two goals, but it wasn't nearly enough against Boston's collectively aggressive shut-down skill...

...Jason Chimera's goal at the end of the second was more a matter of Chimera being in position to take advantage of a rare Bruins' miscue, Boston blue liner Johnny Boychuk trying to tip a rebound toward Johnson to freeze the puck against a heavy Capital's crush on the goal, but the puck popped up in the air and the Caps' opportunistic left wing trickled the puck past Johnson.

The Chimera goal at the end of the second period seemed to energize the Capitals coming out of the room for the third, finding an extra gear and operating in the attacking zone - yet the Boston defense stayed true and disciplined...

...and when Washington's frustrated scoring machine Alex Ovechkin lined up an open-ice cheap shot on Boston's Loui Eriksson to take a charging call, the ice leveled out again and Patrice Bergeron's power play tip in made it 4-1, the Caps' compete level trickled down to nothing.

Even Washington's goal in the final minute resulted from a bad Boston error, this one by Johnson who stepped out of the crease to play a puck sliding in from the left wing, but Johnson could neither clear the puck nor get back to the crease before Evgeny Kuznetsov planted a tight angle shot to make the score look a little more respectable.

With the win, the Bruins tied a franchise record of eight consecutive road victories and for the moment have leap-frogged the St. Louis Blues in the race for the President's Cup - and Iginla's two goals tied him for 24th with Montreal's Guy LaFleur for goals in NHL history and gave him 30 goals for the 12th time in his 20 year career.

The Capitals missed an opportunity to climb into one of the Eastern Conference's two wildcard playoff spots, but instead remain tied with four other teams with 80 points, but still on the outside looking in as both Columbus and Detroit hold the tie-breaker with more regulation and overtime wins.

Both teams have a quick turnaround, the Caps hitting the trail to Nashville and the Bruins traveling to Philadelphia for Sunday tilts.