The Washington Capitals trail the Boston Bruins 1-0 at the end of the first period at TD Garden. Michael Ryder scored on a late first period power play to give Boston a 1-0 lead. It was the second straight game Boston has scored first and the goal ended the Capitals' perfect start on the PK at 25. A few more observations:
- The Capitals top line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Knuble entered tonight's game looking for retribution after a poor showing Tuesday night against Boston's top line of David Krejci, Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic. The Caps top line did just that as they outskated and outchanced the Bruins' top line in the first period. Nicklas Backstrom had a shot at point blank range in the first minute of the game that was stopped by Boston netminder Tim Thomas. Look for this line to increase the pressure as the game goes on and get one, maybe two passed Thomas.
- Bruce Boudreau juggled his second and third lines by moving Tomas Fleischmann to the third line and rookie center Marcus Johansson to the second. The move worked in the first period as Johansson found Brooks Laich open early in the first for a prime scoring chance. The swapping of centers helped the Caps to a 7-4 advantage in scoring chances in the first period.
- Semyon Varlamov got his first start of the season tonight and has looked good. He did allow one goal, but there aren't many goalies in the league that would stop a one-timer on a slap pass from low in the left circle with the opposition on a power play. Look for Varly to get better as he game goes on.