An alert Pastrnak (1-2–3) also set up Morgan Geekie’s empty-netter that iced the win with 57.1 seconds to go. Pastnak, Geekie and Lindholm, all part of the club’s No. 1 trio, collected all three goals and landed six shots.
The Bruins were not as feisty as advertised, or as designed by the front office over the summer, but they displayed some vital penalty-killing grit, keeping Alexander Ovechkin quiet all night and snuffing out all five of the Capitals’ power play opportunities.
If they are going to rinse and repeat the game plan over the next six months, beginning Thursday night with the Blackhawks in town, the Bruins have to do a better job at capping the opposition’s chances.
The Capitals, often off net with prime chances, finished with a 36-21 shot advantage. The Bruins will have to cut back on shots allowed, though they consistently kept Swayman from facing sustained pressure or repeat prime scoring chances.
The Caps launched a total of 81 shot attempts on Swayman, better than a 50 percent edge over the 53 the Bruins fired Thompson’s way.
Pastrnak’s goal, the 392nd of his career, wasn’t a product of his usual assortment of shots.
Looking simply to keep the puck in the offensive zone, and perhaps hoping his shot would lead to action around the net, Pastrnak connected on a seeing-eye 50-foot wrister that snaked through traffic and beat Logan Thompson at 12:07 of the second.
Pastrnak, ranked fourth among all NHL goal scorers since 2016-17, the first time he scored 30 in a season, was the lone Bruins draftee among the 12 forwards that suited up against the Capitals.
In a business that considers the draft its talent lifeblood, one draftee among the 12 forwards was not an encouraging sign. At least the Bruins could boast Pastrnak is among the league’s elite strikers.
Since the start of the 2016-17 season, only Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin have put more pucks in the net than the today 29-year-old Pastrnak.
The Capitals were outshooting the Bruins, 15-9, upon Pastrnak’s shot going in the net.
The Bruins landed only one more shot on net for the period, leaving the Caps with a 26-10 shot lead at the second intermission.
One very encouraging sign for the Bruins through two periods was the fact that they were 5-for-5 on the penalty kill at the 40:00 mark.
They ranked 24th on the PK last season — only eight spots from the cellar. If the Bruins are indeed going to follow the proposed game plan this season, and grind teams down with a salt-and-vinegar game, then they are likely going to be banger with penalties.
The leading PK unit had Sean Kuraly paired with Pavel Zacha and Charlie McAvoy with Hampus Lindholm. They could be logging serious minutes together over the next 81 games.
The Bruins, ranked a lowly 29th on the power play last season, were awarded but one chance on the advantage through two periods and failed to muster a shot.
Morgan Geekie and newcomer Viktor Arvidsson each were in position for good chances but failed to put the puck on Thompson.
The closest the Bruins came to scoring in the opening period was when they came perilously close to seeing Hampus Lindholm credited with an own goal.
But for an alert Swayman, the puck would have rolled through his five hole, the puck rolling off Lindholm’s stick blade as he fanned on an attempted breakout pass from the leading of Swayman’s crease.
Named one of the club’s three alternate captains earlier in the day, Lindholm played his first game in 330 days. The Swedish backliner was felled by a cracked kneecap Nov. 12 in St Louis last season, underwent surgery to mend the crack, then was never healthy enough to get back into the lineup last season.
The leading Bruins line, the trio that ideally will set the club’s scoring pace, is on the books for a collective $177.25 million, with Geekie over the summer signing a six-year, $33 million extension.
leading wage-earner Pastrnak, the elite right winger, is working on a offer valued at $90 million. Center Elias Lindholm, a disappointment last season, is in Year 2 of a pact worth $54.25 million.
Pastrnak has strung together three consecutive 100-point seasons (joining the rarified company of superstars Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr).
The Bruins played their first season-opener nearly 101 years earlier, Dec. 1, 1924, against the Montreal Maroons at Boston Arena (today Matthews). Coached by then GM Art Ross, the Bruins tagged a 2-1 loss on the Maroons, and then lost the next 10 straight by an aggregate score of 61-20.
Scoring, even then, was a bugaboo for the Black and Gold.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.
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