Nope, this wasn’t the turning point. The Washington Capitals started strong against the Arizona Coyotes, but surrendered five unanswered goals after the first period and looked more than a little messy. Some nasty reffing didn’t help either.
Antoine Vermette got a quick power-play goal in the first period, but the Caps stormed back with three of their own: Tom Wilson’s deflection of Alex Ovechkin’s long bomb, John Carlson’s point-blank wrister, and an Ovi shot from the Ovi spot.
The second period belonged to the Coyotes, who got two goals on or immediately after power plays.
Arizona scored two early in the third– first when Sam Gagner did something mysterious and inscrutable in front of Justin Peters, and again when Shane Doan stole Alex Ovechkin’s defensive-zone turnover. Tomas Rierder got his first NHL goal on a breakaway in the final five minutes.
Joel Ward got a PPG in garbage time off the skate of a Yotes defender, and then Troy Brouwer made it a one-goal game with a weird bounce in the final 30 seconds.
Coyotes beat Caps 6-5.
- Oh, man. The comments are gonna be a bloodbath.
- Alex Ovechkin has tied Peter Bondra for the franchise scoring lead.
- The Arizona power play is good, but just as important: they were busy. The officiating in this game, led by zebra foal TJ Luxmore, was poor. There was the phantom charge on Ovi and then the phantom hi-stick on Ovi, the latter of which allowed Shane Doan to tie the game before second intermission. Those were bad calls– even in comparison to a game filled with bad calls.
- But that’s not why the Caps struggled; it’s just the most tangible detail. Actually, a bunch of trouble in the defensive zone (e.g. Ovi’s turnover before the second Doan goal) allowed the Yotes way more time on attack than was prudent. And the Washington penalty kill wasn’t nearly up to the challenge of stifling the actually-pretty-good Arizona power play. The team was just frazzled.
- Maybe no one more than Justin Peters, who had a bad outing. The guy is making peanuts for a reason; he’s still a good value for a backup.
- The common denominator in all three first-period Capitals goals was Nick Backstrom, who recorded what our friend Tim termed a natural “Backtrick.”
- Tom Wilson got promoted to the Ovi-Backstrom line early in the game. It took less than a minute for him to score, tapping in a distant Alex Ovechkin’s shot in the slot. Barry Trotz said top-line Wilson was the plan all along. I just wanted him off the fourth line, but okay.
- Jay Beagle was outshot 9 to 1 during 5v5. It cost the Caps. Something isn’t working down there.
- Andre Burakovsky took a hit in the first period and hardly returned thereafter. He played less than 8 minutes.
- Personally, I like it when some no-name scrub rookie from the opposing team scores the first goal of his career against the Capitals. It warms my heart.
Joe B suit of the night.
So about this:
@russianmachine I am panicking, can you guys talk me down? #caps #whatishappening
— Ninjafett (@NinjaFettTV) November 3, 2014
@russianmachine how many more games do we have to lose like this before the "at least our corsi is good" excuse gets old!?
— Evan Knode (@Rebel_Skum_85) November 3, 2014
@russianmachine can we panic now? What a shit show tonight.
— Bill S_EndAlzRacing (@jaxhockey) November 3, 2014
@russianmachine at what point does disappointment replace patience? Perhaps too soon now, but……?
— James T Paterson (@jtpaterson) November 3, 2014
“@russianmachine: DISASTERRRRRRR” Should we still stay calm?
— Jennifer Kirby, MD-PhD 😷 (@gu_girl) November 3, 2014
I’ve been thinking how best to respond to you. Maybe the right response is the simplest:
IT’S FREAKING NOVEMBER.
Chill, my friends. This is game eleven of 82. There are miles to go before we is party now.
The Capitals are still outshooting their opponents in all the same ways that every great team of the last decade has done. Every team– both great and good– has struggled and slumped from time to time. While it’s easy and convenient and tidy to attribute those slumps to personal problems (“Green’s soft,” “Ovi’s a bad leader,” “Holtby suuuuuuucks”), but there’s precious little evidence to back any of that up.
But if it makes you feel better to vent, please go ahead. Try to let the feeling go as quickly as it came; it’s healthier.
Another thought: just say PETER IS WRONG on twitter or in the comments. When, eventually, it becomes clear to everyone that the Caps are bona fide playoff team (once they work out the ugly details), we will all look back on those tweets and comments, and boy are we gonna laugh. It’ll be a hoot.
This team is good. Take it to #thebank. It’ll be obvious soon enough. Like Mike Vogel said, this team had a twenty-goal scorer on every line. They also had the most expensive defense in the league.
But games are just random little things with weird bounces and bad refs and unfortunate turnovers and pinged goalposts. There are ups and downs in the micro scale, but in the long run this team’s trajectory is clear.
UP!
