Bruins wrap preseason with shutout loss vs. Capitals
In case an eight-player recall ahead of the team’s flight to Washington was not confirmation enough, the Bruins’ preseason finale was more about wrapping up the preseason slate unscathed more than anything else, with the B’s on the wrong end of a 2-0 final down in D.C. on Saturday night.
It was yet another night where the Bruins failed to generate much offensively, with just 15 shots on goal against the Caps’ Charlie Lindgren, and with a shorthanded goal from Aliaksei Protas in the opening frame all that Washington needed to get the victory over Jim Montgomery’s squad.
The Bruins failed to provide much in terms of a potent counter-punch to Protas’ shorthanded marker, with their best (and really only) quality look of the opening frame coming with a tic-tac-toe look from Fabian Lysell to Brett Harrison and then to Georgii Merkulov on a look that beat Lindgren’s five hole but ultimately just went wide of the Washington cage.
Still down by one through two periods of play, the Bruins brought their strongest push to the rink in the third frame, with a near-goal from Cole Koepke in the first shift of the period, and a great shot from Fabian Lysell after a successful dance through DC’s blue line with just over six minutes left in the game.
But a bad-angle backhand, top-shelf goal from the Capitals’ Trevor van Riemsdyk just moments later was all the Caps needed to officially put the Bruins to bed in this contest.
The biggest question that’ll come out of this one is whether or not Brandon Bussi, who got the call for the full 60 in this game, did enough to officially beat out the freshly-acquired Jiri Patera for the potential backup gig should the Jeremy Swayman stalemate drag on into the regular season.
Bussi came into this game with seven goals on 58 shots this preseason (an .879 save percentage), but with a 30-of-32 performance in the losing effort, Bussi bumped that up to .900 for the preseason, and made a big-time stop on Andrew Mangiapane in the third period to keep the B’s deficit at one.
A few hours before this game, the Bruins received word that all three of the players they placed on waivers on Friday — forward Vinni Lettieri, defenseman Jordan Oesterle, and goaltender Michael DiPietro — all cleared waivers and will report to AHL Providence.
Boston’s waiver activity will only ramp up from here, though, with the Bruins having to make even more cuts with their Opening Night roster due by 5 p.m. on Monday.
