10:23 p.m. was not a good time for the Washington Capitals on Monday. That’s when the clock hit zero, putting the Caps down 2-1 in their best of seven quarterfinal matchup with the Bruins. But it was also what happened after the whistle that could haunt the team’s postseason chances.

As the final seconds ticked off and the Caps dropped the game 4-3, Boston’s Rich Peverley and Alex Ovechkin got into a scuffle. Coming to the aid of his buddy, Nicklas Backstrom delivered a cross-check up high on the Bruins forward. That’s when the inconsistent officiating of this series — and these playoffs as a whole — once again reared its head. For his infraction — the third called against him in the game — Backstrom was assessed a match penalty.

The video is after the jump.

“I think it’s normal that there’s some intensity and the rivalry is getting better and bigger as we move forward here,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said in his post-game press conference. “You understand that those kind of things are going to happen. The only thing that’s a little disappointing for me is the fact that this is the third time in three games that our player has been cross-checked in the face. We saw the one on [David] Krejci in Game 1 and Ovechkin on [Dennis] Seidenberg in Game 2, and now Backstrom. You hope that those things don’t get out of hand and again, I’m going to say the same thing I said last time, somebody else has to deal with that and not us and as a coach I want to continue to get my team ready for the next game.”

So what does this all mean? Let’s take a look at NHL Rule 21.1:

A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner. … In addition to the match penalty, the player shall be automatically suspended from further competition until the Commissioner has ruled on the issue.

Yep, after Shea Weber’s attempted murder of Henrik Zetterberg last week that earned him a mere (for a guy that earns $7.5 million) $2,500 fine, it’s the 24-year-old soft-spoken Swede that could be sitting up in the press box Thursday. And how about what Tim Thomas pulled on Saturday, committing two acts that according to the rulebook should have earned him match (!) penalties.

I think Backstrom’s play was dangerous, no doubt. But was it a deliberate attempt to injure Peverley? I don’t think so. Backstrom is not that kind of player and this was a heat of the moment situation. And that’s what Caps coach Dale Hunter hopes the league will conclude.

“I think the league will review it and rescind it,” he said. “If you see it, it’s not that bad.”

Take heart, Caps fans, it’s all up to Gary Bettman now.

This is what Swedish revenge looks like. (Photo credit: Mark Baer, US Presswire)

The playoff series gives Caps fans a chance to learn all about our rivals and the exotic places they come from. For the first of their Stanley Cup travelogue series, the PuckBuddys offer “How To Spot A Bruins Fan” and helpfully explain why living in Boston is worse than gargling with cat litter.  

The Geography of Bad: Let’s just put a few things on the table. Some cities are horrible because of where they are. Tampa comes to mind. Not quite poor enough to be swamp trash, not quite rich enough to be coastal, it’s the worst of Florida compressed into one atomically fetid spot. Or take Winnipeg. God help anyone who has to go to Winnipeg.

Other places aren’t so much insufferable because of where they are, but because of who lives there. Philadelphia, for example, where entire generations have refined the art of being over-privileged and grating. Dallas, which is just about all we need to say about that hole. Or pretty much the entire state of Arizona.

That said, there’s a whole special category of wretched for cities that, were the Lord truly merciful, He would just dump into the ocean and pretend it never happened. Can you guess which blighted dung pile is featured in this week’s list of awful?

Ding ding ding! Boston, America’s capital of bedbugs and mange. And sitting atop it all are Boston Bruins fans. To help with this week’s influx of overly loud and underly mannered Bruins, we offer “How To Spot A Bruin.” You’ll thank us.

But first, let us briefly explain how curdlingly ghastly Boston is.

See Scenic Boston!

How Much Awful Is Awful?

We all know their entire team is terrible; from Coach Claude “Ratso” Julien to Zdeno “The Kraken” Chara to Patrice “Bite Us” Bergeron, they don’t so much compete as throw a 60-minute tantrum on the ice. I would say it’s hard to know where to begin, except it isn’t. Any game will do. Like Saturday, when we saw human blimp Tim Thomas taking pot-shots at not one but two Capitals and Brad Marchand– that sophisticated gentleman– grabbing hold of Nicky’s visor, giving it (and him) a good shake the way a cracked-up inmate might.

And we know that what passes for officiating during a Bruins game is just slightly less of a baggy-pants farce than Dancing With The Stars. Every bully needs a compliant tool to help them maintain their bully aura, and the NHL zebras are exactly that for the B’s.

And then, somewhere underneath all that, you’ll find the Bruins and their fans.

How To Spot A Bruins Fan

• “What Did You Say?” The Bruins fan is instantly recognizable not by what they look like, but what they sound like. At first encounter you may think you’re experiencing a bad case of tinnitus, but it’s most likely the Bruin. Operating in a register that psycho-acousticians classify as “annoying,” Bostonians don’t so much speak English as they torture it. Think of that sound the dentist’s drill makes on your molar and you have your basic Bruin.
• “Wicked Pissah!” Once you adjust to the shrill tenor of the Bruins’ voice, you’ll next notice that you can’t understand a thing they’re saying. ‘Perhaps they’re having a stroke?’ you might ask. Don’t worry. What you’re hearing is the Bruins jumbled jargon they call “speaking.” Semioticians such as Noam “Boston Red” Chomsky speculate this may be little more than an effort to confuse non-Bostonians, lulling them into a stupor so they might then steal your doughnuts.
• Giant Mutant Bumble-bees. Next is the native Bruins’ traditional costume. What’s white, black and gold, and covered in mustard stains? Either Don Cherry on a bad day or a Bruin. (Ha! A tw0-fer!)
• 

  Another good give-away of a Bruin: bad tattoos

  Shambles. Next, note the Bruins’ manner of movement, adopting a sort of shambolic shuffle between their seats and the Sam Adams beer stand. Experts have long been puzzled by this almost devolutionary quirk, yet Bostonians have been quick to adopt it as their own. I believe it was Elizabeth Barrett Browning who once said “…the native Bostonian, in all elements, possesses the grace of a swan…a really fat, drunken swan.” Or not, we don’t care.

• Seatmates. If all of these clues don’t alert you to being in the presence of a Bruin, there will be no mistaking them should you be unlucky enough to be seated next to them. You may notice the faint whiff of brackish water, or a vague nausea washing over you, as if you had just found forgotten baby diapers. But once the game begins there will be no mistaking them. They will be the ones with the blood-lust in their eyes. They will be the ones loudly sharing their complete lack of hockey knowledge. You will want to turn to them and ask,’Pardon good Sir, but why are you an idiot?’ You must avoid this temptation; go to your mental happy place, keep calm and carry on.
• The End. Finally, you will know a Bruin this week by how fast they scurry out of the Verizon Center when their team loses like crazed lemmings flinging themselves off a cliff. Think how quickly Timmy the Whale left after being harpooned by our Swedish fishermen.
  

  Actually Zdeno Chara

We could continue (and we may!) for sometime chronicling the waking nightmare that is Boston and the Bruins. But we also learned something else recently. For all their bluster, the will cracks just like anyone else. And we believe it has.

Oh, and I’ve just been informed it’s “Fatso” Julien. Wicked good!

In the second period of Game 1, Braden Holtby was whistled for roughing when he shoved Bruins’ forward Chris Kelly out of his crease. It seemed like a pretty tame play for the postseason, but the men in stripes intervened nonetheless.

Well, in the Caps’ Game 2 win against the Bruins, Tim Thomas decided to go medieval on several Capitals. Let’s review, shall we?

Tim Thomas had to deal with Troy Brouwer’s best brick wall impression all night, and it cost him a goal early on. Clearly he was still in a bit of a snit over this when Brouwer once again parked himself in the crease — you can see Thomas kicking at Brouwer and trying to stomp on his skate, and as silly as this looks with all that gear on, it’s a pretty dangerous play.

In the third period, good net presence by the Capitals led to a scrum, and Thomas took advantage of the confusion to lean up and uppercut Nicklas Backstrom with his blocker.

This second play we find particularly objectionable, considering Backstrom’s history with head trauma, and the intent with which the whole team seems to be targeting him. Backstrom got the best kind of revenge by victimizing Thomas for the game-winning goal later, and didn’t seem to be any worse for the wear, but this play was pretty far over the line.

We’re all for feisty goalies, we’ve got the most cantankerous netminder in our system playing this series, after all — all we ask is a little evenness in the way they’re penalized. Tim Thomas is welcome to his little temper tantrums, as long as he has to swallow a penalty right along with them. Neither of these plays were assessed a penalty.

It's okay, Claude Julien. (Photo credit: Getty)

If you thought it was obvious that the Bruins got away with a few tonight though, whoa, back up, you haven’t heard Claude Julien’s side of the story. “The one thing is, this is the second cross-check in two games,” Julien told NESN, referring an Ovechkin cross-check on Seidenberg that went uncalled. “Krejci got cut below the nose by the cross-check in Game 1, and now that one, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it except that there’s no call on it, on the play.”

“And then the league has a second opportunity to review it, and you’ve got to let them do their jobs,” Julien continued. “So, those to me are extremely dangerous things that we keep talking about wanting out of the game, and I’ve seen suspensions from that before. But we’ll the let the league take care of it, and we’ll focus on what we have to do to win the next game.”

Poor Bruins. Poor Tim Thomas. It must be so terrible that everyone’s stomping on you with skates, and intentionally hitting you in the head after the whistle. I only hope the Capitals don’t commit an uncalled cross-check next game, those guys are out of control.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland.