The teams fought to a scoreless draw in the first period and
almost escaped the second period without a goal recorded. However, late in the middle frame, Nicklas
Backstrom took a Brooks Orpik pass in stride, skated through the neutral zone, eased
in down the middle, and snapped a shot past the glove of Sergei Bobrovsky. The goal at the 15:43 mark would be the only
scoring through 40 minutes.
It might have been enough, but Zach Werenski, who seemed to
be all over the ice in this game, tied it 13 minutes into the third period with
a laser that beat goalie Philipp Grubauer on the glove side off the post to
make it 1-1.
That would be all the scoring in regulation, a goal by
Nicklas Backstrom having been disallowed on video appeal due to an
offside. In overtime, the Blue Jackets
ended things in the first minute when Brandon Dubinsky won a draw, Cam Atkinson
picked up the loose puck, and Atkinson snapped the puck past Grubauer’s blocker
for the 2-1 Columbus win.
Other stuff…
-- Washington and Columbus combined for a total of just 28
shot attempts and 11 shots on goal in the first period.
-- At one point, Justin Williams, Dmitry Orlov, and Lars
Eller had nine of the Caps’ 16 shot attempts and half of the team’s six shots
on goal. That is not a good mix for the
offensive load early in games.
-- Weird stat. In six
games coming into this one in which Columbus had two or fewer power play opportunities,
they recorded at least one power play goal in five of those games and were 6-for-11
overall (55.6 percent). In games in
which they had three or more power play opportunities, they had power play
goals in three of them and were 6-for-25 (24.0 percent) in those games. Columbus was 0-for-3 in this game.
-- The Caps had three shots in the third period, none in
overtime.
-- The Caps had two power play shots (no goals) in 3:31 of
power play ice time. Alex Ovechkin and
John Carlson were the shot makers.
Again, nothing low or in the middle.
There just seems to be a general lack of aggression on the man
advantage.
-- Only three forwards had less even strength ice time than
Ovechkin (11:20) – Zach Sanford (10:12), Daniel Winnik (10:21), and Jay Beagle
(10:17).
-- Backstrom’s goal was his first in five games and just his
second of the season. Backstrom has had
some slow starts in his career, but last year he has his second goal in Game 2
of the season.
-- We noted in the prognosto that Cam Atkinson has been
something of a one-trick pony so far, being mostly a power play
phenomenon. He did have three of
Columbus’ five power play shots, and Nick Foligno and Sam Gagner contributed a
shot. It suggested that Philipp Grubauer
was the Caps’ best penalty killer.
-- Brooks Orpik had an assist on the night, his fourth
assist and point of the season. All of
them have come on the road.
-- T.J. Oshie led the Caps in shot attempts for the evening,
getting a total of seven (3 shots on goal, 2 missed shots, two shots blocked).
In the end…
The Caps are a team in a fog at the moment. Their offense has no continuity, their power
play has no cohesion, and they can’t seem to hold a lead when they get one
(late leads lost to Chicago in a win and in this game). Last season, the Caps had a unique ability to
keep one loss from becoming two, even if they were not playing particularly
well. So far this season, the club looks
as if it is still sleepwalking a bit after their loss to the Penguins in the
second round of the postseason. Well,
they get to do something about that on Wednesday night.
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