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Squandered: Ducks beat Caps 5-2

By Peter Hassett

 4 Comments

February 17, 2019 11:56 pm

The Washington Capitals should have had this one. The Ducks are a disaster: fired coach, goalie hurt, in the west’s basement. But they still totally outplayed Washington, who sabotaged themselves at every step.

Alex Ovechkin scored the lone goal of the first period, his 40th this season, just as a power play expired. Anaheim responded with two goals in the second period, including a mortifying one by Jakob Silfverberg as the Caps defense just sorta didn’t — more on that below. Carlson replied late in the second with a long slapper that hit some traffic in front of Ryan Miller.

But the Ducks got the lead early in the third period with a wild scramble in front of Holtby’s net and extended it with a Corey Perry power-play goal. With five minutes left,Ā Silfverberg struck again after the Caps turned the puck over in neutral.

Caps lose.

  • The game started around 20 minutes late as the ceremony to retireĀ Scott Niedermayer’s number ran quite a bit long. This would have been fine if this weren’t one of those late west-coast games and I didn’t work tomorrow, but it is and I do.
  • Alex Ovechkin‘s Ovi Shot from the Ovi Spot in the first period puts him in good company among fellas with ten or more 40-goal seasons: Gretzky, Dionne, Lemieux.
  • TJ Oshie left the game in the second period and did not return. He is listed with an upper-body injury. Caps senior writer Mike Vogel said the injury was not to Oshie’s head.Ā Oshie seemed to have gotten into it with Corey Perry prior to his final shift.
  • What the dickens happened to Washington’s defense on this goal? How does this happen? What does Evgeny Kuznetsov think he’s doing here? Looking for a dump-in? He’s 100% oblivious to Silfverberg freely sashaying his way into the crease. Banish this play or bench this player. This is hockey poison.
  • Matt Niskanen had a particularly rough game, getting dominated in his primary assignment against the Rakell-Getzlaf-Perry line.
  • Tom Wilson and Nick Ritchie got sent home early, earning matching 10-minute game misconduct penalties late in the hour.

  • ā˜šŸ™„Ā The internet is full of people righteously indignant over it like it was a Trump tweet. Personally, I don’t care — not that my cynical indifference is any better than everyone else’s .humorless outrage. Maybe it’s funnier though.

So, let’s recap the recap: Ovi scored, Kuznetsov was bad on D, Niskanen got caved in, Holtby did his best, and there were a ton of penalties. That’s basically the story every other Caps game since October. Too bad it had to happen at this time of the season, on this road trip, against this team. These were two very winnable points, and now they’re gone.

The Caps can salvage the Cali trip tomorrow in LA. Ovie the bulldog will be there, so it’s gonna be a good day.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Ducks

Headline photo:Ā Katharine Lotze

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