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A team shut out twice in a row and playing a back-to-back easily tops struggling Capitals: Senators beat Capitals 4-1

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It was a Super Bowl Sunday matinee matchup between your Washington Capitals and the Ottawa Senators. Could the Caps turn around a trend of recent very bad play and beat up on the lowly Sens? Nope.

Alex Formenton fired home a shorthanded marker to open the day’s scoring. Adam Gaudette doubled the Ottawa lead as he made a nifty move to beat Ilya Samsonov on an odd-man break.

Nicklas Backstrom jammed home a rebound from an Alex Ovechkin power-play one-timer to get the Caps on the board. Brady Tkachuk pounced on a rebound of his own to put the Sens back up two. Connor Brown with a soft wrister made it four.

Senators beat Capitals 4-1.

  • It started basically how it finished in Montreal. The Caps barely looked like they were trying at points of the first and that ended up with them in a 2-0 hole after twenty minutes. 60-percent of the five-on-five shot attempts went the Senators way and they outshot the Caps 12-7. Cant put either of the goals on Ilya Samsonov. The team in front of him was just still asleep.
  • Another shorthanded goal against. The seventh allowed this season which is the second-most in the league behind only New Jersey. They were honestly lucky to not let in two on that same power play as Nick Paul had a breakaway almost right after as they continue to spend most of their power plays doing more backchecking than anything else. A rare strike with a man up from Nicklas Backstrom soothed some of my ire.
  • I thought Joe Snively was fantastic again. The 26-year-old rookie that the Caps just brought up from the AHL the other day looks like one of the few roster members actively creating on the ice right now.

  • The second was a lot better from the Caps but they still came out of the frame down two goals. Anton Forsberg was really the reason for that as he was a wall in the Sens net. That’s what can happen when you don’t come out and actually play in the first period. A goalie can get hot and kill you.
  • This is your reminder that Ottawa played yesterday and got shut out by the Boston Bruins. Oh, and the game before that they were shut out by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
  • At least Aliaksei Protas scored and assisted on another for Hershey in his second game back with the Bears. Hendrix Lapierre also has points in nine straight games in the QMJHL.
  • I miss TJ Oshie. A lot.

  • The third was meh but very clearly not good enough when you’re down two goals. Samsonov let in an absolute joke of a wrister that he lunged at like a fish out of water. This team is just not in a good spot. I feel like I’ve written that seven times since January began.
  • The Sens first win in Washington since January of 2014. Adam Oates was the Caps coach as they missed the playoffs that season.
  • Tom Wilson threw a huge, clean hit on Thomas Chabot in the third. He was immediately challenged to a fight by Paul. Even if he didn’t get jumped for the fight, I think that should still be an instigator on Paul. Clean hits in the NHL should not always equal immediate fights.

A trip to the Music City to take on Filip Forsberg and the Predators is up next for the Caps. In their last four road games in Nashville, the Caps have given up 24 goals. Yeesh.

Headline photo via Rachel C

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