The Canadiens drew first blood late in the first period when
Arturri Lehkonen finished a play on which all the little things went wrong for
the Caps. It started with the Caps “winning”
a faceoff to the right of goaltender Braden Holtby. The “winning” is in quotes because the Caps
promptly lost control of the puck in the corner to Lehkonen, who then got
position on defenseman Matt Niskanen to take advantage of a skating path along
the end wall. Lehkonen followed that
path behind the Caps’ net, then wrapped the puck around the post and off the
heel of Holtby’s stick into the back of the net to make it 1-0 14:41 into the
contest.
That would be all of the scoring for the next 20 minutes of
ice time, but late in the second period, the Caps took advantage of some
outside-the-rules play by the visitors.
With Nathan Beaulieu and Alexei Emelin in the penalty box to give the
Caps a 5-on-3 power play, an attempted clear by Andrei Markov up the wall was
claimed by John Carlson before the puck could exit the zone. From his knees, Carlson whipped the puck
across to Alex Ovechkin, who fed it down to Justin Williams at the bottom of
the left wing faceoff circle. Williams
took a moment, then slipped a pass under Markov’s stick to the opposite faceoff
circle, from which Nicklas Backstrom one-timed the puck over goalie Carey Price’s
left pad, tying the contest at the 14:16 mark.
Barely two minutes later, though, the Canadiens had what
would prove to be the game-winner. Max
Pacioretty skated the puck over the Caps’ blue line and left it for Phillip
Danault along the left wing wall.
Danualt eased the puck forward, back to Pacioretty, who threw a pass to
the low slot where Jeff Petry was closing.
Petry redirected the puck past Holtby, and the Habs had their final 2-1
margin.
Other stuff…
-- Talk about record one doesn’t necessarily want to
set. With the loss, Barry Trotz became
the losingest coach in the history of the regular season in the NHL. The loss was Trotz’ 653rd in his
coaching career (531 in regulation time, 122 in extra time), breaking a tie
with Ron Wilson. Trotz might not hold
that spot for long, though. Dallas’
Lindy Ruff has 651 career losses, and Winnipeg’s Paul Maurice has 647 career losses. Maurice leads all active coaches in losses in
regulation time (550, fourth all time), while Trotz and Ruff are tied with 531, tied for sixth all-time (thanks to Dirk Hoag, formerly a blogger for the Nashville Predators, for unearthing that nugget).
-- Carey Price’s record went to 29-1-1 in his last 31 games
played on Saturday for the Canadiens.
-- Justin Williams’ assist on Nicklas Backstrom’s goal made
it four straight games with a point and points in six of his last seven
contests (5-2-7).
-- Backstrom continued his hot play over the last five weeks. With his goal, he is 8-10-18 in 16 games
since November 15th.
-- Tom Wilson had marks in only one column of his line of
the score sheet. He had six hits in
10:43 of ice time.
-- Wilson’s line of the score sheet was almost crowded
compared to Brooks Orpik’s… one shot attempt blocked in 16:22 of ice time.
-- In the Younger Guns category, Jakub Vrana and the
just-recalled Zach Sanford combined for two shots on goal (both by Vrana),
eight shot attempts, one hit (Sanford), and two blocked shots. Unfortunately, no points between them.
-- The Caps out-hit the Canadiens, 43-18. The Canadiens had the puck a lot…
-- …but they did so little with it. Montreal finished the game with just 44 shot
attempts (the Caps had 58), but…
-- …the Caps went 15:32 without a shot on goal, from 17:23
of the second period to the 12:55 mark of the third period.
In the end…
The Caps never seemed to be in this game, and with the Caps
matching their shot of goal total (21) with shot attempts blocked by the
Canadiens (21), the game looked hauntingly like the 2010 playoffs. From the start, it seemed as if Carey Price
was just a bit in their heads, the Caps frequently opting for one more pass
when a shot might have been a better option.
Neither goalie was called upon often to do much in the way of big saves,
and the score reflected that.
The good part of this loss, to the extent there is one, is
that the Caps still held what was the league’s fifth best scoring offense to
two goals. The bad part is that the Caps
let a team that hadn’t won a road game in regulation time in almost two months
off the hook. But the bottom line is
that on a night when the Caps saw a six-game winning streak come to an end, two
of the teams with which the Caps are fighting for position in the Metropolitan
Division lost – the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime to the Toronto Maple Leafs
and the Philadelphia Flyers to Dallas Stars – although another (the New York
Rangers) won in a Gimmick. It was not a
good night for the Caps, but it wasn’t a total wash out in the bigger scheme of
things.
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