The Washington Capitals seemed to have things safely in hand
this afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers at Verizon Center. The Caps dominated the first period, taking a
2-1 lead 14 minutes into the game and carrying that to the first
intermission. In the second period,
despite being outshot 14-9, the Caps won the period by another 2-1 margin,
carrying a 4-2 lead into the third period.
All the Caps had to do in the third period was play with
poise and not be stupid.
They did neither. The
Flyers scored twice in the last 8:02 of the game to tie the score, one of the
goals coming on a major power play, courtesy of Dmitry Orlov’s major boarding
penalty against Brayden Schenn, the other goal coming with just 65 seconds in
regulation after the Flyers pulled their goalie.
Then, 2:45 into the extra session, Vincent Lecavalier put the
Caps out of their misery with what would have been a harmless enough wrist shot
except for apparently nicking defenseman Karl Alzner on the way through. It was just enough to allow the puck to elude
goalie Braden Holtby’s glove, and a game that looked to be in the bank for the Caps
at 2:30 p.m. was a loss by 3:30, a 5-4 Flyers overtime win.
It was an especially cruel turn of events for Capitals
defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who got the Caps going with a goal 6:06 into the first
period. After some relentless
forechecking pressure, then puck control by the Caps in the Flyers’ end, Troy
Brouwer laid the puck back for Orlov from behind the Flyers’ goal line, and
Orlov stepped into a slap shot that beat goalie Steve Mason on the far side,
high over his blocker.
After Claude Giroux tied the game five minutes later, it was
Marcus Johansson’s turn, this time darting in from the weak side of the play to
the top of the crease to redirect a centering feed from Jason Chimera over
Mason’s right pad. That was the way the
first period would end.
In the second period, Adam Hall scored a shorthanded goal at 12:50
after a ghastly turnover by Alex Ovechkin.
With the puck sliding deep into the Caps’ end of the ice, Ovechkin
misread the intentions of teammate John Carlson trailing him and to his
left. Ovechkin left the puck for Carlson
at the side of the Washington net to Holtby’s right, but not with enough sauce
for the puck to get to Carlson, who had circled wider than Ovechkin seemed to
anticipate. The misstep was enough for
Sean Couturier to gather the puck as he was circling around the net from the other direction, beating
Carlson to the biscuit. Continuing up the
left wing wall Couturier found Hall skating down the middle and hit him for
what would be an uncontested shot from the high slot that Hall fired past
Holtby.
Jay Beagle got that one back less than two minutes later
by finishing up a 3-on-2 break. Mike Green
had the puck skating down the right side, and when Claude Giroux mistimed a
slide to try to interrupt a Green pass to the middle, the puck found its way
into a clot of bodies in front of Mason.
It popped out to Mason’s right where Beagle was by himself. With not much less than an empty net to shoot
at, Beagle capitalized, and the Caps had a 3-2 advantage.
Less than three minutes later, Orlov notched his second of
the game. He and Mike Green played catch
with the puck at the top of the Flyers’ zone as the play unwound.
Having stepped around Steve Downie to give himself room once already in
the sequence, Orlov took a return pass from Green and took advantage of Downie
having backed in on defense. Orlov let
it rip from the top of the zone, and with Joel Ward and Jason Chimera causing
havoc in front of the Flyers’ net, Mason never saw the shot as it sped by him
to give the Caps a two-goal lead.
It would be the most dangerous lead in hockey, it turns out, at least on
this day. A great day for Orlov turned sour when he lined up Brayden Schenn and
hit him in the nameplate on the back of his jersey, driving him into the
boards, resulting in a five-minute major.
The Flyers scored only once on the extended power play, a goal by Jakub
Voracek, but the momentum the Caps had was gone. It would be the Flyers who dominated late,
eventually scoring the last three goals of the contest to steal two points that
the Caps thought they had safely tucked away.
Other stuff…
-- Yes, Claude Giroux’ goal was a goal, it rimmed around the
top inside post of the goal; it did not hit a pipe or the crossbar. As for the disallowed goal off the stick of
Nicklas Backstrom at the other end, that was purely a case of the default call –
that being “no goal” called on the ice – lacking conclusive evidence to
overturn it. Good teams shrug those sorts
of thing off.
-- Orlov took his boarding call at the 9:33 mark of the
third period. After that point the
Flyers outshot the Caps over the rest of the game by a 13-0 margin, scoring
three goals in the process. The Capitals
did not record a shot on goal over the last 14:52 of the contest.
-- The Caps dominated the first period, outshooting the
Flyers, 17-6, and out-attempting them, 32-14.
After that, the Flyers outshot the Caps, 30-12, and out attempted them
by an almost unbelievable 62-20 margin.
-- Washington was 0-for-6 on the power play. That matches their worst output at home this
season, an 0-for-6 power play in a 1-0 loss to the New York Islanders on
February 4th.
-- On the other side, it was the third straight game in
which the Caps allowed at least one power play goal. The Flyers went 2-for-4, including the
Voracek goal on the extended power play.
-- Alex Ovechkin had ten shot attempts in the first 18:06 of
the game (five shots on goal, two misses, three shots blocked). He had five shot attempts over the final
44:39 (one shot on goal, three misses, one blocked shot).
-- It was a bad afternoon for the top defensive pair. Karl Alzner was on ice for three goals
against, John Carlson for four. For good
measure, Ovechkin was on ice for three goals against to lead, so to speak, the
forwards. Oddly enough, the third pair –
John Erskine and Connor Carrick – was not on ice for any goals against.
-- Mike Green had his first three-assist game since getting
three helpers in a 7-4 win over Ottawa on Feburary 1, 2009.
-- For Dmitry Orlov, it was the first two-goal game of his
career in his 100th NHL game.
Geez, did it have to be a major penalty to undo what should have been a
memorable game… in a good way?
-- Until Orlov’s major penalty, it looked as if Steve Downie
might end up being the Flyers’ goat for the game… four minor penalties taken in
barely ten minutes of ice time. Had the
Caps converted any of those power play chances…
In the end…
That is where the problem lies in this game, the
ineffectiveness of the power play, not Orlov’s major. The Caps had three power plays in the first
period, giving them a chance to end the competitive portion of the afternoon
early. As it was, the Caps allowed the
Flyers to sneak out of what was, for them, a poor first period down only a
single goal.
The Caps let the Flyers off the hook, and then when
confronted with adversity in the third period by Orlov’s penalty, they
folded. It just does not seem to be in
this team’s DNA to be able to either: a) stand on an opponent’s throat with a
ruthless attitude toward closing them out, or b) being able to stand up
forcefully when a team makes a run. For
20 minutes the Caps looked like a team that might be turning the corner, a team
that might be making that late-season rush that they need to make to reach the
playoffs. For 40 minutes and change
after that, they looked like what they have looked like too much this season,
an aimless, uninspired club. It was
another game, another standings point given away in a season full of them.
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