The Washington Capitals experienced both in the space of 24 hours,
coming back from a two-goal deficit on Saturday night to tie the Buffalo Sabres in the last minute of regulation before overtaking them, 4-3, in a Gimmick, then failing to hold a two-goal lead against the
Philadelphia Flyers, allowing a tying goal with ten second left before dropping a 5-4 overtime decision in Philadelphia.
The game between the Capitals and Flyers was entertaining, but one also
could see why both teams are on the outside looking in at the playoffs. Washington owned the first ten minutes of the
game, scoring first on a Nicklas Backstrom goal when he tipped a shot by Jack
Hillen out of mid-air and outshooting the Flyers, 7-0, in the first 9:30 of the contest.
The Flyers then took over, scoring on their second shot of the game at
the 10:26 mark, courtesy of Max Talbot, then scoring just over four minutes
later on a breakaway by Matt Read. As
dominant as the Caps had been over the first ten minutes, so were the Flyers in
the last ten minutes of the period, and it was the Flyers taking a 2-1 lead
into the first intermission.
The Caps had the only tally of the second period, Mike Green getting
his fifth of the season when he broke out of the penalty box after serving a
holding penalty, taking a long lead pass from Brooks Laich, and beating goalie
Ilya Bryzgalov to tie the game.
It made for a bizarre, wonderful, tragic, and head-scratching finish in
the third period and overtime. The
bizarre came when Steve Oleksy dropped Claude Giroux with what looked to be a
clean check in open ice. Jakub Voracek came to his
teammate’s defense, his head in the right place, but unfortunately for him,
protected by a helmet and a visor. Voracek
got two for instigating, five for fighting, an extra two for instigating while
wearing a visor, and a ten-minute misconduct.
With Oleksy getting only five for fighting, the Caps had a four-minute
power play.
To that point the Caps’ power play was pitiful, getting only three
shots in four power play opportunities.
But this time the Caps made the Flyers pay, converting both ends of the
double minor penalty. The first came off
a turnover by Claude Giroux that ended up on the stick of Marcus Johansson, who
wristed a shot past Bryzgalov to give the Caps the lead. Just 26 seconds later, John Carlson – who appears
to have mastered the feed for the one timer – set up Alex Ovechkin for just
that, Ovechkin wiring the puck past Bryzgalov’s blocker to give what appeared
to be an insurmountable 4-2 Caps lead with 13:12 left in regulation.
However, just as the Caps came back from a two-goal third period
deficit on Saturday night against Buffalo, the Flyers would put the Caps on the
other side of that ledger. Giroux made
up for his earlier miscue with a one-timer of his own from the left wing circle
at the 12:48 mark, leaving the Caps clinging to a 4-3 lead. The Caps held that lead for 7:02. Trouble was, they needed to hold it for
7:12. The Flyers tied the game with ten
seconds left in regulation in the cruelest fashion. Just as Mike Green tied the game on Saturday
night by ringing a shot off the post and off the goalie with 39.2 seconds left
in regulation, so did Kimmo Timonen fire one off the pipe and in behind goalie Braden
Holtby with just those ten ticks left.
In the overtime, the Flyers made short work of it, Timonen figuring
heavily in the game-winner, too, with his feed to an open Ruslan Fedotenko to
Holtby’s right. The pass barely eluded
the stick of defenseman John Carlson, but elude the stick it did, and Fedotenko
had an open net in which he buried the game-winner.
Other stuff…
-- Needless to say, if the Caps miss the playoffs by one point, this is
the standings point they will have nightmares about all summer. Losing a lead with ten seconds left is not what
teams with playoff aspirations do. And
the Timonen goal to tie the game was really more than a minute in the
making. Defensemen Steve Oleksy and Jeff
Schultz stepped onto the ice with 1:26 left to play. You would figure that they might skate a
35-40 second shift and get off for the final shutdown pair. That would have worked but for a dubious
icing call with 49 seconds left, a result of Timonen (who should have been the
first star of the game) taking the great circle route to catch up with the
puck. Prohibited from changing out his
defensemen, head coach Adam Oates had to stand and watch, depending on a
faceoff win and a clear to swap out his defensemen. Claude Giroux beat Nicklas Backstrom cleanly
on the ensuing faceoff, and the Caps could never clear the puck out of the
zone. Thirty-nine seconds after winning
that faceoff and pinning the Caps in their own end, Timonen scored with the exhausted
Oleksy and Schultz still on the ice.
-- Another game, another power play goal for Alex Ovechkin. His power play tally in the third period was
his 12th power play goal of the season (tops in the league) and his fifth
over his last seven games. He is on a 8-4-12
scoring run over his last eight games.
-- Ovechkin’s six shots on goal and 16 shot attempts give him 16 shots
on goal on 33 shot attempts over his last two games.
-- At the other end, Mike Ribeiro did not record a shot attempt in
almost 21 minutes of ice time, the only Cap to do so.
-- Mike Green’s goal gave him markers in consecutive games for the
first time since he recorded goals in four consecutive games from October
30-November 7, 2010.
-- Nicklas Backstrom’s goal makes it three in six games after recording
three in his first 29 games. Backstrom
is 3-6-9 over his last eight games.
-- Marcus Johansson had his fourth multi-point game in his last eight
contests. Over that span he is
3-6-9. “3-6-9” must be a Swedish thing.
-- The seven power play chances were the most for the Caps since they
had eight back on January 25th against New Jersey. They lost that game in overtime, too, 3-2.
-- The Caps allowed a power play goal tonight, the third time in four
games that they have allowed one. They
have not won any of those games in regulation (two Gimmick wins, a regulation
loss, and tonight’s overtime loss).
-- Getting eight shots on seven power plays is not especially
impressive, and it is made worse by allowing four shorthanded shots on goal.
-- Karl Alzner was minus-3, the first time he finished a game there
since he was a minus-3 against the New York Rangers in a 5-4 Gimmick loss on
February 11, 2009.
-- Steve Oleksy had five blocked shots.
That vaulted him into fourth on the team in blocked shots with 33 in
just 15 games.
-- The Caps finished the month 9-6-1, a 97-point pace per 82 games.
In the end, it was a lost opportunity for the Caps. Had they won this game they would be ninth
place, behind the Rangers for eighth place by virtue of the Rangers holding a
game in hand. As it is, the Caps remain
in 11th place, tied with Carolina in points but with the Hurricanes
holding two games in hand. It sets up
Tuesday’s game in North Carolina as being just that much more important. As for the weekend, it was a case of winning
a game they should have lost and losing a game they should have won. Three points out of four on the road would
almost always be looked upon as a good thing.
But it is that point that got away that is going to linger, at least
until late Tuesday night.