Talking Points: Rask shines, Bruins look tough

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GOLD STAR: Tuukka Rask looked completely in midseason form while stopping 15 shots. Rask was especially brilliant in the second period when he made 10 saves, and turned away at least a half-dozen scoring chances. A couple of saves on Justin Williams – one on a breakaway, and one on a stuff job at the post – were among his best of the night, and he also turned away wide open shooting chances for Jay Beagle and Evgeny Kuznetsov. It was only Rask’s second appearance of the preseason, but the Finnish netminder looks ready to go for the regular season after the final dress rehearsal. It seems very likely that the Bruins might have walked away with a win in this one if it was the regular season, and Rask stayed in the game.

BLACK EYE: Literally, Tom Wilson has a black eye and probably some hurt feelings after going toe-to-toe twice with Kevan Miller. The first time Wilson got the upper hand by cutting open Miller with a killer upper cut, but Miller got his revenge while standing up for teammate Matt Irwin. Wilson clobbered Irwin in the corner and was animatedly smiling going back up the ice, and that was enough for Miller to lose it on him. This time Miller clobbered the 6-foot-4 Wilson right in front of the Bruins bench, and led to Miller and Adam McQuaid screaming at Wilson from their adjacent penalty boxes while serving out their penalties.

TURNING POINT: The Bruins were hanging on in the third period to protect the 1-0 lead, but Jeremy Smith couldn’t only hold back the dam waters for so long with the Washington players getting such good looks at the net. Finally Alex Ovechkin flipped a wrist shot past Smith with 2:34 to go in the third period, and pushed things to overtime and the shootout. It seemed somewhat inevitable the Capitals were going to finally break through given the quality of their scoring chances, but it would have been much better for Smith if he could have held them back. Instead he allowed the tying goal, and then was scored on in each of the first two shootout attempts after a scoreless overtime.

HONORABLE MENTION: Alex Ovechkin had the game-tying goal with 2:34 left in the third period, had a game-high six shots on net, 10 shots attempted and four registered hits in 23:34 of ice time for the Capitals. Ovechkin was dangerous all over the ice shooting pucks and throwing his weight around all night, but he didn’t really zero in on the scoring chances until the final few moments of regulation. Ovechkin has a lot of help around him on the Capitals roster this season. But it’s also very clear the Washington captain can still be a dominant force whenever he puts his mind to it, like he did on Friday night.

BY THE NUMBERS: 4 – the number of fighting majors for the Bruins on Friday night with Kevan Miller, Adam McQuaid and Tyler Randell all dropping the gloves to stand up for teammates, showing the Capitals that they won’t be pushed around. It could also create a little uncertainty in opponents where they hadn’t been any last season. If the Bruins are out to prove that last year’s soft, pale imitation of the Bruins wasn’t going to return this season, they did an effective job of expressing that on Friday.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "You saw tonight that guys are sticking up for each other, so that's also a good sign in my mind.” –Claude Julien, after watching his Bruins players standing up for each other in a fight-filled preseason game against the Capitals.

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