from Samantha Pell of the Washington Post,

The Washington Capitals simply could not keep up with the Boston Bruins on Friday night in Game 4 of this first-round playoff series. The visitors looked lifeless, at least a step behind the blur of black and yellow sweaters at TD Garden.

The result was a 4-1 loss that left them on the brink of elimination, trailing this best-of-seven affair 3-1 with Game 5 on Sunday at Capital One Arena.

“This one, we just weren’t good enough,” Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette said. “We weren’t fast enough. We didn’t execute well enough.”

Should the Capitals fail to climb out of this hole, it would be the third straight season in which they were ousted in the first round since they won the Stanley Cup in 2018.

“We have to want it,” center Nicklas Backstrom said. “It’s obviously a big game coming up, and we have to be mentally ready. I feel like the previous three games before this we were a lot better than tonight. So we’ve got to be mentally ready, and we’ve got to play for each other. That’s maybe something we didn’t do tonight.”

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Game highlights are below.