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Dowd-Hathaway not enough: Chicago beats Caps 4-3 in the shootout

By Peter Hassett

 3 Comments

December 2, 2021 9:49 pm

The Washington Capitals blew a third period lead on Thursday, but this time it was a smaller lead, but thay lead was lost to a worse team, Chicago, so that’s … I dunno. Is that better?

Alex DeBrincat was first on the board, beating Vitek Vanecek on the rush. Nic Dowd finished a beautiful passing sequence to tie it early in the second period, but Domink Kubalik exploited a failed clear from Evgeny Kuznetsov to score a power-play goal. Out of spite, Kuznetsov crashed the net to even the score at 2-2 after two periods.

Coming out of the penalty box at the top of the third period, Garnet Hathaway caught a jailbreak pass from Nic Dowd to give Washington their first lead of the night. Seth Jones neutralized that lead with a goal from the slot with eight minutes left in regulation. That pushed into overtime, which was fun but fruitless.

Shootout bullets.

  • Kuznetsov did not put the biscuit in the basket, rang post
  • Toews did not put the biscuit in the basket
  • Sprong did not put the biscuit in the basket, rang post (again)
  • Kane put the biscuit in the basket
  • Ovechkin did not put the biscuit in the basket

Caps lose in the shootout.

  • Evgeny Kuznetsov started this game off with a brilliant and flashy, kind of lacrosse-style scoring chance in the opening shift. Then he made that bad clear during the PK, but then he made up for it by scoring a greasy goal up front. Such is the duality of man.
  • Early in the second period, Alex Ovechkin injured Chicago defender Connor Murphy with a clean but devastating hit. Murphy did not return.

 

  • Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway are such a wonderful pairing. They combined for two goals tonight, both illustrating a level of finesse and thoughtfulness that’s rare in any lineup’s grinder spots.
  • Check out the game flow above. The Caps had the puck a lot in this one, but it was uneven and  didn’t deliver for them an edge in quality chances, which were about even. Meanwhile, Vitek Vanecek‘s performance, his first appearance since the late eighties, couldn’t span the expected-goals gap.
  • The Caps remain winless after regulation.

Well, I don’t seem entitled, but I really expected a better game than that. Chicago’s getting better, but they’re still a mess. The Caps should have been able to hang a five spot on them.

Maybe they can rectify this failure with a stronger game against the Blooj on Saturday. See you then.

Headline photo: Sammi Silber