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, Silfverberg struck again after the Caps turned the puck over in neutral.
Caps lose.
We regret to inform everyone that Tom Wilson is doing Tom Wilson things.
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) February 18, 2019
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsDucks pic.twitter.com/ufmlOJDlMD
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 18, 2019
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: Katharine Lotze
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