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Game of the Day: Bruins @ Capitals

Who would have guessed it? The 7th place Washington Capitals who’ve been outplayed in every game of the series have a chance to elimate the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at home this afternoon.

Tied late in the third in yesterday’s game, Tim Thomas whiffed on a Troy Brouwer shot with under 2 minutes left, sealing a victory for Washington.

Oddly enough, Washington is winning this series despite Alex Ovechkin playing terrible. Ovechkin has the second worst relative Corsi on the Capitals in the series at -21.6 despite a favourable 55.3% offensive zone start ratio. The true star for Washington continues to be Braden Holtby, who made this excellent save on Tyler Seguin to preserve the lead yesterday.

Alexander Semin has also been excellent for the Capitals, bucking the lazy narrative that he’s a playoff choker. Semin has a near opposite possession score to Ovechkin at a positive 21.3 relative Corsi, and that is despite starting only 40.4% of the time in the offensive zone. Semin has also chipped in 3 goals for the Caps, including a game winner.

On the Boston side of things, Brad Marchand seemed to have woken up last game, and it’s only a matter of time until Seguin and Patrice Bergeron begin to produce. Then again, Holtby only needs one more great game to make Habs fans everywhere gleeful.

Follow along on the SB Nation sites for the Bruins (Stanley Cup of Chowder) and Capitals (Japer’s Rink).

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