BOSTON — As is the case for any team, there’s a lot of work to be done in training camp and the preseason before the games begin to count for real.
However, the Boston Bruins may just have more work to do than most after falling flat in their first exhibition game of the preseason, losing 5-2 to the Washington Capitals Sunday night at TD Garden.
Things started well for the Bruins. Coming off his breakout 33-goal performance last season, Morgan Geekie picked up right where he left off by burying a slap shot from the slot to put Boston on the board at 6:17 of the first period.
But the revelry didn’t last. Just 31 seconds after Geekie’s goal, Sonny Milano floated a backhand shot over the shoulder of Bruins netminder Michael DiPietro to knot the score at 1-1 a side.
The Bruins had a chance to put themselves back in front with a man-advantage opportunity. They had some decent looks at the net and forced Washington goalie Logan Thompson to make a few saves, but couldn’t put a puck past him. Instead, it was the Capitals who found the go-ahead goal, as Hendrix Lapierre made it 2-1 as soon as the Boston power play expired.
As the period wore on, Washington continued to stretch its lead, with second goal off the stick of Milano, plus another courtesy of Bogdan Trineyev to make it a 4-1 game heading into the intermission.
Patrick Brown drew the Bruins a bit closer when he fired a rocket of a shot into the back of the net to start the second period, only for the Capitals to push their lead back to three with a goal from Ryan Chesley later in the frame.
That ended up being the last bit of action DiPietro saw, as the Bruins swapped him out for Simon Zajicek midway through the game after stopping 16 of the 21 shots he faced.
Zajicek fared better than his predecessor in the crease, stopping all six shots that came his way, and so did the Bruins in turn.
They cleaned up the defensive lapses that cost them earlier on, and spent the majority of the final period in the attacking zone. But while the Bruins tightened up their play, but couldn’t do the same for the score.
The exhibition ended with the Bruins and Capitals squaring off in a shootout, which Boston lost, too.
The Bruins will continue their preseason slate on Tuesday night with a matchup against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
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