After playing in four straight games for the Bruins, Fabian Lysell was a healthy scratch in Boston’s tilt with the Washington Capitals at TD Garden on Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old first-round draft pick is still looking for his first NHL point, but the lack of offensive output is not the reason he was held out of the Bruins lineup against the Capitals.
“You saw the game up there, right?” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco replied when asked why Lysell was a healthy scratch. “It was more if a decision of who we were playing tonight. But Fabian’s fine. It’s only one game. He’ll draw back in at some point again.
“He’s going to continue to build his game. … But tonight was more of a line decision based on the opponent.”
Sacco alluded to Jeffrey Viel, who was recalled on an emergency basis Tuesday morning and played over Lysell before the game, mainly due to the Bruins’ opponent’s “size.”
“We’re playing a big, heavy team tonight against Washington,” Sacco told reporters, per the team. “That’s why the option to have Viel draw in tonight, he might be in.”
Viel didn’t figure in the scoresheet offensively; however, his heavyweight bout with Captials defenseman Dylan McIlrath ignited the crowd and his teammates late in the second period.
Lysell could be back in the lineup as early as Thursday night when the Bruins travel north of the border in an Original Six matchup with the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. He has been averaging just under 13 minutes of ice time since being recalled by the Bruins on March 18. Lysell scored 11 goals and registered 23 assists, with a plus-11 rating across 51 games in Providence this season.
Ovechkin scores and Capitals beat Bruins
Alex Ovechkin scored his 891st career goal, moving him four away from passing Wayne Gretzky´s NHL record, and Dylan Strome broke a third-period tie on Tuesday night to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins.
Nic Dowd and Tom Wilson also scored for Washington. Charlie Lindgren made 21 saves to help the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals snap a a three-game losing streak.
David Pastrnak had two goals, Vinni Lettieri scored one and Jeremy Swayman stopped 27 shots for Boston, which lost its ninth in a row.
Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead with about four minutes left in the first period, pushing a cross-crease pass from Strome into an open net. He has 12 goals in his last 18 games and eight games remaining this season to catch Gretzky.
The 39-year-old Russian also shot wide on an empty net in the final minutes.
