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The bad hockey game: Ducks beat Caps 4-0

By Peter Hassett

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March 7, 2018 1:37 am

The Capitals kicked off their west-coast road trip with an absolute clunker against the Anaheim Ducks.

Adam Henrique got an early power-play goal, then Hampus Lindholm piled on with a nifty goal. In the second period, Rickard Rakell snuck one past Holtby to make it 3-0 and chase the Caps netminder.

The Ducks took their palmate off the gas in the third, but the Caps comeback effort yielded no goals. Nick Ritchie got a empty-netter in garbage time.

Ducks beat Caps 4-0.

  • It’s the fourth time the Caps have been shut out this season.
  • The takeaway is and should be Braden Holtby getting pulled from the net for the seventh time this season and the fourth time since February began. Holtby allowed three goals on nine shots – one up close while a man down, one from the slot through a screen, and one from a low-quality angle.
  • Just so I don’t become repetitive, I’ve been writing a lot about Holtby’s bad season and the reasons why. The primary driver is definitely how bad the Caps defense is at limiting volume and quality, but Holtby’s not knocking down nearly enough of those high-danger shots, and it’s brutal. Tuesday’s hook feels like a signifier of the team’s confidence in him.
  • Did anyone else forget that Jason Chimera plays for Anaheim? Just me?
  • Tom Wilson collided with Ducks goalie John Gibson in the second period. Wilson looked bad, but he returned for the third period and looked no worse for the wear.

  • Really bad work by Christian Djoos, and the Beagle line, and the Eller line, and Braden Holtby, and Blaine Forsythe, and Todd Reirden, and Barry Trotz, and whoever filled up the water bottles. Is that everyone? Yeah, that’s everyone. Definitely no obvious problems on the roster that could be easily remedied with a scratch, which could be easily politically spun as resting a veteran player down the stretch rather than any kind of punitive measure, which would make total sense since it’s not the player’s fault that he’s at the end of his career but getting played more than he has in nearly five years.
  • The game was increasingly driven by score effects in the third, letting the Caps run wild with offense. Leading the way was Andre Burakovsky of all people.
  • Dmitry Orlov also played well? I dunno. Guys, I’ll be honest. I’m phoning this one in, but even I put together like 400 words, which is more effort than the Caps had, so I’m okay with it.

I have some biggish thoughts, but I think I said it better before.

Full Coverage of Caps at Ducks

Headline photo: Sean M. Haffey

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