That might happen down the road, but the Caps' 6-3 loss to
the Tampa Bay Lightning last night served clear notice that there is work to be
done before happy days are here again.
The Caps were behind the eight-ball all night, allowing the
first, third, and fifth goals of the game – tying the contest after each –
before finally wilting under a barrage of three third-period goals by the home
team.
We noted before the contest that Steven Stamkos would get
his goals this season, perhaps even a goal last night (he didn’t), but the Caps
couldn’t let the Nate Thompson’s or the Benoit Pouliot’s beat them (they didn’t
get any goals, either). The point was
that the Caps could not let themselves be beat by the character actors on the
Lightning. That is just what happened,
though, 6:24 into the game when Eric Brewer matched his goal total of each of the past two
seasons (one), scoring on Tampa Bay’s first shot of the season by taking a
simple feed from Matt Carle and wristing the puck past goalie Braden Holtby’s
glove.
Two minutes later Joel Ward put his name in the book as the
Caps’ first goal scorer of the 2013 season, the product of bulling his way to
the net to stuff in a loose puck off a scramble in front. Tom Poti notched the secondary assist on the
play, his first regular season point since the Caps beat the New Jersey Devils,
5-1, on December 21, 2010. How long ago
was that? It was the night Andrew Gordon
(remember him?) scored his first NHL goal.
The teams exchanged goals twice more over the first 40
minutes – the more familiar names of Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis
for the Lightning, Joel Ward again – his first two-goal game in the regular
season since March 18, 2009 (how long ago was that?...Chris Pronger was playing
for Nashville’s opponent that night, the Anaheim Ducks) – and Wojtek Wolski
responding.
A 3-3 tie after 40 minutes was not the worst thing for the
Caps, given it was opening night in a rival’s rink, and they were trying to
work the kinks out of their new approach to hockey. But then they were beaten again by the
supporting cast. Not at first; Martin
St. Louis got his second of the game on a power play. But for their insurance, the Lightning got
goals from Cory Conacher (who looked so small out there his number “89” on the
back of his jersey seemed to wrap around his ribs to the front of his jersey)
and Eric Brewer – again, his first two-goal game since March 7, 2004. How long ago was that? Adam Oates was skating alongside him with the
Edmonton Oilers.
Other stuff…
- Braden Holtby
allowed six goals on 34 shots in 59:48 of ice time (a .824 save percentage). The six goals allowed were as many as he
allowed on a total 108 shots of in the last 203:49 he played against the New
York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring (a .944 save
percentage).
- The six goals allowed by the Caps was the first time they
allowed more than five goals in game since dropping a 6-3 decision to the New
York Rangers on November 25, 2011, in what would be head coach Bruce Boudreau’s
penultimate game.
- The top line to
start the game was Nicklas Backstrom centering Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson. They finished the game with
eight of the team’s 30 shots on goal and 14 of the team’s 50 shot
attempts. They also finished with no
points among them.
- Joel Ward gets the
team’s first star for his two-goal performance, but on a night when the defense
and goaltending was suspect, John Carlson gets a stick tap for logging more
than 25 minutes, finishing plus-2 with four blocked shots, a hit, and a
takeaway.
- The Caps took eight
minor penalties for the evening, a different player logging each one. Almost half the skaters being sent to the box? Not quite the team building stat one might
have been looking for.
- Troy Brouwer took
ten faceoffs on the evening, winning six.
He took a total of 83 draws in 82 games last season. He won all four draws he took in the offensive
zone. Maybe there is a “why” in that…
his center – Mike Ribeiro – was 0-for-4 on offensive zone draws. In other faceoff news, maybe Matt Hendricks has
a “paralyzer” move in the dot – he was six for six.
- Mike Green skated
26:57 in ice time last night. That was
the most he skated in a 60-minute regular season game since skating 28:09 in a
1-0 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on January 26, 2011.
- Jack Hillen skated
only 3:29 in ice time last night, the low minutes a product of his being shoved
rudely into the end boards by Vincent Lecavalier. He skated off under his own power, but
favoring his left shouder. It is
described as an “upper body injury.”
- Mathieu Perreault
skated only 3:52 in ice time last night, only one shift in the last 27 minutes
(hey, only four shifts in the first 33 minutes). And on that last shift, he took a
penalty. On a team that dressed only 11
forwards for the game, that is a significant development, and probably not a
good one.
In the end, it was not pretty, but if one was expecting “pretty”
in Game 1, it might be time to dial down the expectations. The Caps should be better this time next week
than they are now, and better this time next month than they are next
week. That is why it is called a learning
curve. There were things to take away
from this game, not the least among them is that this team is clearly more
dynamic in all three zones than they were under Dale Hunter last season. Breakdowns that created seams in the defense
that the Lightning could exploit are what doomed the Caps in this game, especially
on the penalty kill that went only 4-for-7.
The errors and shortcomings were obvious and seem
correctable with time. The problem is
that there really is not a lot of time to glide up that learning curve. It is going to have to be steeper. And that means improvement Tuesday when the
Caps hold their home opener against Winnipeg.