The Washington Capitals waited eight days since their last
game to face competition, and when the ice chips settled at Verizon Center,
they found that the hiatus had its price as the Philadelphia Flyers skated off
with a 4-3 overtime win. The loss broke
the Capitals’ home winning streak at 12 games.
It was a game in which the Caps found themselves always
chasing – the Flyers, the puck, and a lead.
They spent most of the game unsuccessful at the first two and never did
achieve the last. It started less than
five minutes into the contest. Tom Wilson
was sent off at the 4:48 mark on an interference penalty, and the Flyers struck
just six seconds later. After Claude Giroux
won the ensuing faceoff from Mike Richards, the Flyers worked the puck
clockwise around the perimeter until Wayne Simmonds found Brayden Schenn in the
slot for a one-timer that beat goalie Braden Holtby.
A little over six minute later the Flyers had a two-goal
lead, courtesy of a brutal turnover from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Skating around the back of his own net,
Kuznetsov threw a backhand pass into the middle where Ryan White picked it
off. From between the hash marks, White
snapped the puck past Holtby, and it was 2-0 barely 11 minutes into the game.
That was the way the teams went to the locker room at the
first intermission, and when play resumed it was the Caps dominating. They capitalized when the Flyers could not
get the puck out of their own end. A
pass from White to Sam Gagner proved to hot to handle, and the puck bounced
free to Nate Schmidt, who slid it to Andre Burakovsky in the high slot. Burakovsky had time to pick is spot, and his
picked it well, firing the puck just over goalie Michal Neuvirth’s left pad to
make it 2-1.
Nicklas Backstrom tied the game less than a minute
later. The Caps skated up on a 3-on-3
rush, led by T.J. Oshie carrying the puck down the left side. Skating down the wall, Oshie spied Backstrom
as the late trailer, and he fed Backstrom skating down the middle. From the inside edge of the right wing
faceoff circle, Backstrom wristed the puck past Neuvirth, and it was a 2-2 game
8:34 into the second period.
The Flyers recaptured the lead late in the period on a goal
by Jakub Voracek, who fired a shot though a maze of bodies from the far edge of
the right wing circle off a faceoff win by Giroux. The 3-2 Flyer lead was how the teams would
enter the third period.
The only goal of the final frame came in the fourth
minute. Kuzetsov redeemed his turnover
in the first period with some hustle and deft stick work. After Justin Williams chipped the puck into
the Flyer end, it got caught up in the skates of Scott Laughton. Kuznetsov pounced on the opportunity, digging
the puck out of Laughton’s skates and turning toward the goal. Working the puck around Mark Streit, he found
Burakovsky skating down the weak side.
Kuznetsov slid the puck over, and Burakovsky rang a shot off the inside
of the pipe on the near side past Neuvirth to make it 3-3 at the 3:55 mark.
That would be the way the score remained for the duration of
regulation time, but things were settled shortly thereafter. Voracek and Kuznetsov dueled behind the Caps’
net for the puck, and Voracek won the battle, circling out to the right of
Holtby. Spinning off Kuznetsov, with
Holtby having lost his stick, Voracek snapped a shot over Holtby’s left
shoulder and into the top corner on the far side to send the Flyers off with
the 4-3 win.
Other stuff…
-- After the game, the Capitals announced that Alex Ovechkin
would not participate in the All-Star game in Nashville this coming
weekend. The team stated that Ovechkin
had been playing with an injury and made the decision with the long-term needs
of the team in mind. As a result,
Ovechkin will serve a one-game suspension and will not participate in the Caps’
first game on the schedule after the All-Star game against the Florida Panthers
on February 2nd.
-- In a way, this game was something out of a Sherlock
Holmes story, the dog that did not bark.
Or more precisely, the whistle that was not blown…twice. Once when Dmitry Orlov took an elbow to the
face behind his own net, and again when Michal Neuvirth directed the puck into
the netting on a late Caps power play that might have provided a 5-on-3
advantage.
-- Andre Burakovsky is on a tear. The two goals make it four games in his last
six that he recorded two points. He is
3-6-9 over those six games.
-- Nicklas Backstrom’s goal extended his points streak to
three games. He is 6-7-13 over his last
11 games.
-- Braden Holtby took a pair of minor penalties less than
four minutes apart in the second period.
They were his first penalties of the season.
-- The Caps were down to 16 skaters by the end of this
contest. In addition to Dmitry Orlov
taking an elbow in the chops (he did not skate the last 7:24 of regulation and
did not skate in the overtime), Marcus Johansson left the game 12 minutes into
the contest with an upper-body injury.
-- Two Capitals went out with injuries, but one returned
from injury for this game. John Carlson
skated for the first time since December 26th. In 19 minutes of ice time he had one shot on
goal, one shot attempt blocked, three blocked shots, and he finished a plus-1.
-- You would probably go through a few names on the Caps
roster for this game before settling on Nicklas Backstrom as the team leader in
credited hits (6).
-- The Caps came into this game plus-11 in first period goal
differential; the Flyers came in at minus-18.
So, of course, the Flyers led, 2-0, after the first period. Hockey is weird.
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov wins the coupon for the all-you-can-eat
buffet… an assist, five shots on goal, a shot attempt blocked, two misses,
three hits, two giveaways, a takeaway, a blocked shot, and nine wins in 14
faceoffs taken to go with a minus-1.
With that point, he is 6-15-21, plus-10, over his last 16 games.
In the end…
The rust showed. Add
to that the fact that the Caps lost two players to injury, got one back who was
just easing himself back in (to the extent you can do that in the NHL), had
another who is banged up enough to miss the league’s All-Star game, and it was
a recipe for disaster. That it was not,
that the Caps managed a point out of this game, is a sign of the club’s depth.
That is not to say they played well. They did not.
The second line had an eventful night, and not all in a good way.
They were on ice for two of the three goals for (both scored by Andre
Burakovsky with an assist on one to Evgeny Kuznetsov), and they were on ice for
both even strength goals scored by the Flyers in regulation. Kuznetsov was also on ice – and was
victimized – for the game-winning goal in overtime.
Now, the Caps get almost another week off before taking the
ice again. There will be more rust to
accumulate, and it will be a challenge to keep it from getting too thick. They have a large cushion in the standings with which to
work, but a hallmark of this team has been its ability to keep one loss from
becoming two. That will be put to the
test as the club takes some days off to tend to its wounds among some key
players.