Photo: Mike Stobe
With a 1.2 percent chance of a postseason, the Washington Capitals were basically playing for pride against the New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon. I’m supposed to be analyzing these games in addition to just recapping them, but I’m having a hard time sussing out exactly what we just watched.
Are they thick and proud? Are they a mess? Is all coming together? Is there any urgency? Are they surging late? Have they given up?
I’m gonna go with contradictory yes across the board. The Caps went into a two-goal hole, and then climbed out, and I don’t know what to make of that.
Cal Clutterbuck struck first for the Isles, taking advantage of the Brouillette-Strachan defensive pairing. Evgeny Kuznetsov tied it up in the second period after a pass from Marcus Johansson that was either brilliant or dumb luck. The Isles struck back 90 seconds later, as a Caps opponent is wont to do. Frans Nielsen made it 3-1 for the Isles on an iffy goal, but Nicky Backstrom returned fire a little after the halfway mark by cleaning up a broken play. The third line (Mojo edition) continued to be insane-o with Joel Ward’s game-tying goal, his 23rd of the season.
The third period was quiet. Too quiet. Overtime too. So, here we go again…
Shootout bullets!
Caps beat Isles 4-3 in the shootout. Yey.
I got nothing. What’s the right way to talk about the remainders of a lost season? It seems wasteful to pick on the team, and I don’t even feel like I’ve got a grasp on whether or not they were any good tonight. We’ve been over all the problems on the team. The only thing we can add to that list is a possible injury to Mike Green.
Have a great weekend. Catch you on Tuesday for more motions to go through.
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