News » AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington

BOSTON (AP) Sean Kuraly isn’t so good at waiting.The Boston Bruins forward is usually going full-speed on the ice San Jose Sharks T-Shirts Womens , whether it’s chasing the puck on the forecheck or sizing up an opponent for a hit. So when he saw David Pastrnak’s shot hit off the post and flutter into the air, it was tough for Kuraly to be patient.”A play like that doesn’t come around very often. When it does, it’s kind of a waiting game,” he said on Thursday night after bunting the puck into the net to help the Bruins beat Toronto 5-1 in the opener of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.”It’s not really my style,” said Kuraly, who had to resist hitting the puck before it fell below the level of the crossbar to avoid being called for a high stick. ”To go from 100 mph and hitting everything that moves and (wait) in front of the net, it can be a challenge.”Brad Marchand, David Backes and David Krejci each scored a power-play goal, and Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots for Boston. Pastrnak scored to make it 3-1 with 38 seconds left in the second period, then moved in on goalie Frederik Andersen seven minutes into the third before backhanding the puck off the post.Kuraly waited, and then two-handed the puck off the shaft of his stick like a bunt as he fell over the sprawling goalie.”I’m a terrible baseball player,” he said. ”It has nothing to do with baseball.”Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is back at the TD Garden on Saturday night.”We’ve got a day to solve our problems,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. ”We could feel sorry for ourselves if we want tonight, but that’s a waste of time and energy.”Boston already scored two power-play goals when Toronto’s Nazem Kadri was thrown out of the game and given a five-minute major for an elbow to Tommy Wingels‘ head. Three-minutes later, Krejci bounced it in off Andersen from behind to make it 5-1.”I thought it was the appropriate call,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”Where it goes from here is out of my hands.”Zach Hyman scored Toronto’s only goal San Jose Sharks Hoodies Womens , and Andersen made 35 saves.”They cranked it up, and we didn’t answer,” defenseman Ron Hainsey said.The matchup is the first in the postseason for the teams since Toronto’s Game 7 collapse in the first round in 2013, when Boston rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the third period, scoring twice in the last 82 seconds of regulation to send it into overtime. The Bruins went on to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.The Maple Leafs never had a lead to blow in this one.And the Boston power play was the reason.”Obviously, our penalty kill wasn’t good enough,” Babcock said. ”We took too many penalties in the third, and the third was no contest.”With James Van Riemsdyk off for hooking, Marchand scored on a backhander to give the Bruins the lead 5:28 into the game. Hyman tied it for the Leafs with about three minutes before the break but Backes put Boston back in front early in the second on a pass from Krejci.Pastrnak converted a pass from Marchand with 38 seconds left in the period to make it 3-1, and then set up the next goal when he moved in on Andersen and bounced it off the post. As the puck fluttered in the air over the sprawled goalie, Kuraly came in trailing the play and knocked it into the net.NOTESPastrnak and Torey Krug had two assists apiece. … Toronto was 0-for-3 on the power play. Boston was 3-for-6. … The teams came into the game 34-34-1 in their first 69 playoff matchups, but the Maple Leafs hold an 8-6 series edge. … The Bruins pledged the profits of their 50/50 raffle – at least $50,000 – to support the victims of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus crash.— PITTSBURGH (AP) The Washington Capitals don’t need a history lesson. Neither do the Winnipeg Jets for that matter.The Capitals are well aware of their penchant for letting opportunity after opportunity slip away, frequently at the hands of Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.And just in case Alex Ovechkin and his teammates ever forget about their playoff missteps, they need only step in front of a camera or a microphone, where the same questions are posed year after year.There’s only one way to hop off the hamster wheel: close out the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins this week – preferably at the end of Game 6 Monday night (7 p.m. San Jose Sharks Hats Womens , NBCSN) in Pittsburgh – to earn the franchise’s first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 20 years.”I don’t know if I could tell you exactly what it would mean,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said.”None of us have ever been there. We’re just looking to get the job done and maybe after we can talk about the feelings. But right now we still got a lot of work to do.”Work that in the past has proven to be too much. Four previous times during the Ovechkin Era – including in 2009 and 2017 against Pittsburgh – the Capitals have won three games in the second round of the playoffs. It’s that fourth one that’s proven elusive.No pressure or anything. All Washington has to do to produce a cathartic breakthrough is hand the Penguins their first series loss in 37 months.Pittsburgh has never lost an elimination game under head coach Mike Sullivan, capturing a pair of Game 7s – including a 2-0 shutout in Washington in the second round – during its run to a second straight Cup last spring and rallying from a 3-2 deficit against Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals two years ago.”They know what it takes to win,” Sullivan said. ”They’re not afraid of challenges and they embrace these types of situations.”To become the first team in 35 years to earn three consecutive titles, the Penguins don’t really have a choice.They were the better team for long stretches in Game 5 only to have the Capitals surge past them in the third period for a 6-3 win – the second time in three games Pittsburgh lost in regulation when leading after two, something it didn’t do at all in the regular season.No matter. Recovering quickly and moving forward has kind of been their thing under Sullivan. The Penguins are 17-5 following a playoff loss with Sullivan on the bench.Pushing that number to 18-5 would send the series back to Washington and force the Capitals try to explain – again – how this time will be different.”We knew it was going to be a tight series,” Crosby said. ”We need to make sure we leave it all out there, give ourselves a chance to get back (to Washington).”At least the Capitals put themselves in position for playoff heartbreak. That’s hardly the case with the Jets, who until a month ago had won exactly zero postseason games in their 18 years of existence and now find themselves one victory away from the Western Conference finals.Winnipeg has never been this far. Ever. The Jets put themselves in position when they stunned Nashville by scoring four goals in the second period against Vezina Trophy finalist Pekka Rinne during a 6-2 romp in ”Smashville” in Game 5, sending them home for Game 6 (9:30 p.m., NBCSN) with a chance to wrap up the series.Not that the Jets want to talk about it.”That’s noise. It’s kind of a distraction,” Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said.”What we’re focused on is what’s given us success all year long, and that’s just finding a way to win one hockey game. If we’re able to do that, then when it’s all said and done you’re reflecting on the season and you’ll think about what you were able to accomplish and the magnitude of the situation. But we can’t make it bigger than a game.”The Predators, unlike the Jets, have been here before. They faced elimination in the first round against Anaheim in 2016 but came back to advance Custom San Jose Sharks Jerseys , triumphing in the crucible of Game 7 for the first time in franchise history in the process.”It’s pretty simple, we win we keep playing,” Nashville forward Filip Forsberg said. ”If we don’t, we don’t play anymore. Obviously that desperation level is going to be a determining factor for sure.”It’s a feeling long familiar in Washington. The Capitals received a dose of good news on Sunday when coach Barry Trotz said center Nicklas Backstrom will travel with the team after leaving in the third period of Game 5 with an upper-body injury.Whoever is on the ice will be forced to shoulder the weight of playoff failures, one Trotz is confident his team is finally ready to shrug off for good.”I can tell you there’s not a player, a coach, a trainer, ownership, (general manager) who is not trying to do everything they can to win this series,” Trotz said. ”Trust me. We’re trying as hard as we can and at the end of the day that’s all we can promise.”—AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, and AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.—