Well…one in a row will have to do.
The Caps couldn’t make it two straight on the road as they fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh this evening, 3-1. It was one of those games that was close, and then again, it wasn’t. Although the Caps played with the sort of uneven energy that the second of back-to-back road games would suggest, the game really turned on two plays.
In the first, the Caps were in the midst of killing a penalty late in the second period when Joni Pitkanen whiffed on a shot attempt from near the Caps’ blue line. Alex Ovechkin collected the loose puck and was off on a breakaway. He was hauled down by Pitkanen, resulting in a penalty shot. Ovechkin’s attempt had all the look of someone who changed his mind on what to do as he was approaching goalie Michael Leighton, and he ended up firing the puck into Leighton’s left pad. Coming as it did with 1.8 seconds to go in the period, a goal there – which would have tied the game – could have been a huge momentum changer as the clubs went to the locker room.
The second play came with under five minutes to play in regulation. Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff in the Caps’ end of the ice, the puck ending up with Sami Lepisto in the corner. Sergei Samsonov (not Ray Whitney, as we thought, until we looked at the video again) made a bee-line for Lepisto to harass him behind the Caps’ net. Eric Staal joined in the play, and Lepisto was unable to move the puck. Staal ended up with it, circled out from behind goalie Jose Theodore, and stuffed a backhand under Theodore to give the Hurricanes the lead once and for all.
The rest of it was equal parts boring and frustrating. It wasn’t as if Carolina played a game that will go into the Hurricane video highlights of the season. The Caps outshot Carolina (39-25) and had fewer turnovers (14-5, including having been credited with only two giveaways…must be a local scoring thing), but the Hurricanes dominated the faceoff circle (34-20), blocked more shots (14-6) and held their own physically (29-28 in hits).
If there was a difference, it was in goal. Michael Leighton made all the saves he had to, and a few he had no business stopping, including a one timer from Ovechkin in the game’s first 90 seconds, a door-step rebound try from Brooks Laich mid-way through the second, and another sliding stop of an Ovechkin one-timer in the game’s last 90 seconds. At the other end, Theodore didn’t play badly by any stretch, but the first goal was a rebound that might have gotten away, and the Staal goal is one that should not have been scored.
If there is something that is creeping into the Caps’ game of late, it isn’t entirely unexpected (given the injury situation) but it is nonetheless a problem that harkens back to last year. The Caps got a goal from Nicklas Backstrom on a nice cross-ice feed from Ovechkin. But the second line, such as it is, was silent. Michael Nylander, Brooks Laich, and Tomas Fleischmann, who started the game as a forward line for the Caps, did have seven shots on goal as a group, but nothing to show for it. Even those seven shots are a bit deceptive. That number represented the entire number of attempts for that trio. Compare that to Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Viktor Kozlov, who combined for 16 shots and 23 attempts.
It was a game when having four comparatively inexperienced defensemen bit the Caps in the backside. In their case, as with Theodore, it was not that they played badly. But a moment’s indecision, a brief mental error, a touch of frantic play behind one’s own net led to three Carolina goals scored from within a dozen feet. It was just enough. And that seems to be the lot of the Caps for the moment. There will be times, like last night in Toronto, when the defense makes things a lot easier for the goaltender. Then there will be days like today when one mistake or two creeps in and ends up in the back of the net. The Caps lack enough depth and consistency in scoring these days to make up for that. It’s the recipe for a .500 kind of performance until the team gets healthy…or at least healthier.
This was an important game for the Caps, one for which giving up two points could ripple through the week. Boston comes to town on Wednesday, followed by a visit by the Senators on Friday before the Caps head to Montreal on Saturday to finish up another back-to-back set of games. The three Northeast Division opponents are a combined 17-7-6 in their last ten games, apiece, while the injury-plagued Caps are 4-6-0 in their last ten. This week will be a challenge.
The Caps couldn’t make it two straight on the road as they fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh this evening, 3-1. It was one of those games that was close, and then again, it wasn’t. Although the Caps played with the sort of uneven energy that the second of back-to-back road games would suggest, the game really turned on two plays.
In the first, the Caps were in the midst of killing a penalty late in the second period when Joni Pitkanen whiffed on a shot attempt from near the Caps’ blue line. Alex Ovechkin collected the loose puck and was off on a breakaway. He was hauled down by Pitkanen, resulting in a penalty shot. Ovechkin’s attempt had all the look of someone who changed his mind on what to do as he was approaching goalie Michael Leighton, and he ended up firing the puck into Leighton’s left pad. Coming as it did with 1.8 seconds to go in the period, a goal there – which would have tied the game – could have been a huge momentum changer as the clubs went to the locker room.
The second play came with under five minutes to play in regulation. Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff in the Caps’ end of the ice, the puck ending up with Sami Lepisto in the corner. Sergei Samsonov (not Ray Whitney, as we thought, until we looked at the video again) made a bee-line for Lepisto to harass him behind the Caps’ net. Eric Staal joined in the play, and Lepisto was unable to move the puck. Staal ended up with it, circled out from behind goalie Jose Theodore, and stuffed a backhand under Theodore to give the Hurricanes the lead once and for all.
The rest of it was equal parts boring and frustrating. It wasn’t as if Carolina played a game that will go into the Hurricane video highlights of the season. The Caps outshot Carolina (39-25) and had fewer turnovers (14-5, including having been credited with only two giveaways…must be a local scoring thing), but the Hurricanes dominated the faceoff circle (34-20), blocked more shots (14-6) and held their own physically (29-28 in hits).
If there was a difference, it was in goal. Michael Leighton made all the saves he had to, and a few he had no business stopping, including a one timer from Ovechkin in the game’s first 90 seconds, a door-step rebound try from Brooks Laich mid-way through the second, and another sliding stop of an Ovechkin one-timer in the game’s last 90 seconds. At the other end, Theodore didn’t play badly by any stretch, but the first goal was a rebound that might have gotten away, and the Staal goal is one that should not have been scored.
If there is something that is creeping into the Caps’ game of late, it isn’t entirely unexpected (given the injury situation) but it is nonetheless a problem that harkens back to last year. The Caps got a goal from Nicklas Backstrom on a nice cross-ice feed from Ovechkin. But the second line, such as it is, was silent. Michael Nylander, Brooks Laich, and Tomas Fleischmann, who started the game as a forward line for the Caps, did have seven shots on goal as a group, but nothing to show for it. Even those seven shots are a bit deceptive. That number represented the entire number of attempts for that trio. Compare that to Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Viktor Kozlov, who combined for 16 shots and 23 attempts.
It was a game when having four comparatively inexperienced defensemen bit the Caps in the backside. In their case, as with Theodore, it was not that they played badly. But a moment’s indecision, a brief mental error, a touch of frantic play behind one’s own net led to three Carolina goals scored from within a dozen feet. It was just enough. And that seems to be the lot of the Caps for the moment. There will be times, like last night in Toronto, when the defense makes things a lot easier for the goaltender. Then there will be days like today when one mistake or two creeps in and ends up in the back of the net. The Caps lack enough depth and consistency in scoring these days to make up for that. It’s the recipe for a .500 kind of performance until the team gets healthy…or at least healthier.
This was an important game for the Caps, one for which giving up two points could ripple through the week. Boston comes to town on Wednesday, followed by a visit by the Senators on Friday before the Caps head to Montreal on Saturday to finish up another back-to-back set of games. The three Northeast Division opponents are a combined 17-7-6 in their last ten games, apiece, while the injury-plagued Caps are 4-6-0 in their last ten. This week will be a challenge.
