Capitals vs. Bruins: Washington Has Made a Big Mistake by Angering Boston

The Washington Capitals were able to frustrate the Boston Bruins over the first two games of their first-round series by blocking shots, being physical and making life miserable for the Bruins' top two lines.

The Bruins and many of their top players were in hibernation, but boy did they wake up Game 3.

On Monday night, the Capitals lost their composure and awoke the beast inside the Bruins, and now Washington is in a dangerous situation that they won't be able to get out of.

The absolute worst thing that the Capitals could have done in this series is poke the bear and make the Bruins angry.

In Game 3, we saw Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara get nasty and take their physicality up to a new level, and this spells doom for the Capitals.

The Bruins are the their best when there is venom in their veins, and after the way Monday night's game ended, Boston is mad and will play the rest of the series with an attitude that makes them so difficult to beat.

When Boston is playing angry, they skate faster, hit harder and everything they do has a purpose. We saw this in the Stanley Cup Final last year when winger Nathan Horton was knocked out of the series on a vicious head shot by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome.

On Monday night, the Bruins went after Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom, as well as defensemen John Carlson and Mike Green by being physical with them. Washington couldn't handle this, and they also couldn't cope with Brad Marchand's pest-like play.

Once the physicality was ratcheted up in the third period and the game became much more nasty, the Bruins began to take control and ultimately scored the winning goal in a dominating last few minutes.

When Karl Alzner tried to bait Bruins forward Milan Lucic into a penalty late in the game, he lit a fire in Boston that the Capitals won't be able to put out.

Washington is being sucked into the chirping and the after-the-whistle stuff that helps the Bruins get under their opponent's skin, and now the Capitals are losing the physical and mental battles of the series.

After the Bruins struggled to find their rhythm over the first two games of the series, it was clear that they needed a kick in the butt to get them fired up.

They got the jolt they needed from the Capitals towards the end of the Game 3, and now Boston has Washington right where they want them.

The Capitals don't have the personnel to play a physical series with the Bruins over the course of seven games, especially when Boston is playing angry hockey.

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Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and has covered the team firsthand throughout the season. He was also the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Boston.