Bruins pound Capitals 4-1

BOSTON, MA - MARCH 16: Shawn Thornton #22 of the Boston Bruins stares down the bench of the Washington Capitals at the TD Garden on March 16, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Krejci-Lucic-Horton line hasn't done much lately, but today they came alive with 9 points in total against the Capitals: David Krejci (1 goal and 2 assists), Nathan Horton (1 goal and 2 assists), and Milan Lucic (3 assists). This afternoon the Bruins looked like the Bruins team that we saw when they were playing a full 60-minute game and playing Bruins hockey. The Capitals didn't score a goal themselves against the Bruins as the only goal they got was from a Krejci pass that went off Johnny Boychuk's skate and past goalie Anton Khudobin.

Quick game summary
In the first period, Bruins Nathan Horton scored his 8th goal of the season, making it 1-0. A little more than three minutes later, David Krejci scored his 7th goal of the season, making it 2-0.

In the second period, Capitals Marcus Johansson got credit for a goal as David Krejci tried making a pass in the slot that went off of Johnny Boychuk's skate and past goalie Anton Khudobin, making it 2-1. Later, Bruins Andrew Ference scored his 1st goal of the season, making it 3-1. With 19 seconds left in the period, Bruins Brad Marchand dropped the gloves with hated Capitals forward Mike Ribeiro and got some uppercuts in on him. All Bruins fans should remember Ribeiro from his Montreal days and know why he is hated. Off the next faceoff, 8 seconds after the Marchand-Ribeiro fight, Bruins Nathan Horton challenged Matt Hendricks to a fight, as they were going at it the entire game, and Hendricks didn't reply to Horton. When the puck dropped on the faceoff, Hendricks charged at Horton and got the jump on him before Horton could get going. Hendricks would lose his balance and go down before Horton could really get at him. Horton ended up having a cut after the fight. By the end of the period, Horton had a Gordie Howe hat trick.

In the third period, Bruins Rich Peverley scored his 4th goal of the season, a power-play goal, making it 4-1. With a little less than ten minutes to go in the game, on a faceoff, Bruins Shawn Thornton challenged Matt Hendricks to fight but Hendicks declined. Thornton would follow Hendricks around the ice challenging him. Hendricks was near his defensive zone blue line and soon found himself in the middle of Thornton and Adam McQuaid. Hendricks chickened out to fight Thornton and dropped the gloves and went with McQuaid instead. In the end it didn't matter who Hendricks went with as he got beat down by McQuaid anyways. On the way to the dressing room Hendricks exchanged words with a Bruins fan in the stands.

GIF of Capitals Matt Hendricks gesturing to Bruins fan in stands

Source: NESN

After the game
Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner was the guy who was doing the "crybaby" gesture to Milan Lucic last season in the playoffs, and now he's crying himself after this game. Alzner didn't like seeing his teammate Matt Hendricks have to fight either Shawn Thornton or Adam McQuaid in the third period because of his previous actions.

"That's the biggest joke I've ever seen in my life, the fact that they let those guys corner a guy like that. For all they know, Henny has a broken hand and can't fight. If we had done that to [Tyler] Seguin with [John] Erskine, you think they would've let that happen? Questionable, very questionable."

Can the Capitals do anything to respond?

"Go after one of their guys, guess that the only thing you can do," Alzner said. "But we're probably not going to do that because we're not that kind of team but that's the only thing you can do."
Source

Nathan Horton on Matt Hendricks not replying to his challenge and then Hendricks getting the jump on him.

"I was yelling at him. Like three times I yelled at him and he didn't look at me," said Horton. Then he just sprinted at me. He kind of caught me with my gloves [down] there. Or maybe he did hear me. I just didn't think he did because he wasn't looking at me."
Source: CSNNE

BOSTON, MA - MARCH 16: Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins skates during warm ups before the game against the Washington Capitals at the TD Garden on March 16, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

Game notes
Anton Khudobin played in net for the Bruins and made 32 saves on 33 shots. Khudobin is now 5-2-0 with a 2.30 GAA and a .920 save percentage this season.

The Bruins led the game in shots 38-33, hits 36-27, faceoff wins 40-25 and blocked shots 10-8. The Bruins went 1-for-1 on the power-play while the Capitals went 0-for-3.

Tyler Seguin, Dennis Seidenberg and Rich Peverley led the Bruins with 4 shots apiece. Shawn Thornton led the Bruins with 7 hits. Adam McQuaid and Brad Marchand led the Bruins with 2 blocked shots apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 19-4-3 with 41 points. The next game for the Bruins is tomorrow at the Pittsburgh Penguins at 12:30pm ET.