The Washington Capitals lost to the Nashville Predators in an action-packed, actually way too action-packed road game. The team’s not going to be happy about this one.
Lars Eller scored his first goal of the season to open up scoring, but Filip Forsberg returned fire after some mid-ice goof-ups by the Caps. Alex Ovechkin bookended the second period with classic Ovi power play goals, with a shorthanded goal by Tom Wilson in the middle and one for the Preds by Ryan Johansen. Johansen got a second goal with a wild scramble in front of Braden Holtby, then Matt Duchene finished off a pass from Forsberg to tie the game in the third. The Caps got desperate then, so TJ Oshie put them back in the lead with a great wristshot set up by Dmitry Orlov. Nick Bonino once again tied it with a loose puck along the crease. Just second later, Mattias Ekholm put the Preds in the lead for the first and last time.
Caps lose 6-5.
- Caps PR tell us that Thursday is the 21st time Alex Ovechkin has scored more than one power play goal in a game. Feels like it should be more. I suppose it will be soon. Either way, it is never not hilarious when a team decides not to shadow Ovi.
- Ovi’s second goal came on a power play that he himself earned with a strong drive through the Preds’ slot.
- Other than that, Washington’s play wasn’t quite as electric during even strength. While the bottom six looked darn good, the top six struggled to get much action in the offensive zone, with the top line caved in with shot-attempt percentage under 30 percent. Yikes. Roman Josi saw them coming.
- One exception was the fourth line, where Garnet Hathaway keeps impressing. He was instrumental in helping third line center Lars Eller get his first goal of the season.
- Kinda surprised it took Tom Wilson this long to score. Even more surprised he did it shorthanded. Even more surprised he did it by pairing up with Chandler Stephenson.
tom wilson: *is a shorty who scored a shorty* pic.twitter.com/mv3AXhHCdm
— b. (@youripides) October 11, 2019
- Thursday marked Nicklas Backstrom‘s 900th regular-season game. He earned the second assist on Ovi’s second power-play goal.
- Congratulations to the Washington Mystic for winning their first WNBA title!
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsPreds pic.twitter.com/JhTkNvt2AN
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 11, 2019
So that’s four third period goals for Nashville. The Caps have now earned and blown leads in three consecutive games. For all the good stuff that’s happening, the team has had a worrying tendency to get outplayed late in games. Compounding the problem is Braden Holtby performing well below expectation so far. But those troubles hadn’t led to a regulation loss until tonight. Now it really hurts and can’t be ignored anymore.
I don’t want to erase all the encouraging trends in the team’s play, but now’s not the time for that. There is real progress happening on this team, but it’s getting obliterated by whatever this whole thing is.
