Andrei SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the authorBy the middle of the season, the Washington Capitals and the Boston Bruins approached in a different state. “Capital” is not without problems, but fairly stable overcame the barriers at the start of the championship and secured a quite comfortable position in the East. However, towards the equator of the regular season, Peter Laviolette's team suffered a lot of losses. In particular, personnel, which directly influenced the result. Just today, the Washington coach missed six important players at once, including Dmitry Orlov: the Russian defender received a two-match suspension the day before for a rough foul against Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolai Ehlers. As for Boston, the bears, on the contrary , not very confidently overcame the starting segment, but closer to the middle of the championship they began their rise in the standings of the Eastern Conference. Prior to today's meeting with the «Capitals» «Bruins» won eight victories in the last ten games. The “capitals” were also hard hit: just ten days ago, “Boston” spoiled the New Year mood for all residents of the US capital by defeating the “Capitals” on their own site with a score of 7: 3. Peter Laviolette will probably prefer to forget today's game of his team as soon as possible, because it is already useless to draw any conclusions on it. Absolutely everyone knows about the problems of the “capital” in defense, creating real scoring chances in matches with an opponent of equal level and the implementation of a numerical majority. The last match with “Boston” was just another in which these difficulties were identified. But how distinct … By the middle of the second period, “Capitals” caused only nine (!) shots on target. For comparison: the “bears” by this time already had about two dozen shots. And this despite the fact that guests from the capital of the United States for this period played four times in the majority. Everything is idle. But in defense of “Washington” it is worth saying about their effectiveness, because in order to “flash” Linus Ullmark, two shots were enough, which should not have ended in a goal.
