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Rested and rusty: Wild beat Caps 5-1

By Peter Hassett

 4 Comments

April 3, 2022 9:36 pm

The Washington Capitals, who enjoyed five days of rest before Sunday’s game, got trounced by the Minnesota Wild, who played last night. This game was awful from the first minute.

Speaking of: The Wild scored two goals in the first 100 seconds of the game. The second period was slower, but Joel Eriksson Ek scored his second of the game off a loose puck. Marcus Foligno scored on the first shift of the third period.

Garnet Hathaway tipped in an Alex Ovechkin shot to end the shutout, but it was over. Nicolas Deslauriers got the empty-netter.

  • The Capitals had five days off since their last game, which was also awful. (I bailed on that game with the stomach flu, and I think I got the better part of the deal.) The Caps did not look rested to me. They looked slow and overwhelmed.
  • Also undercutting their rest, the Caps healthy-scratched AJF and McMichael. Speed, youth, and vitality were not priorities entering this one. There are so many players nursing injuries, playing while hurt, whose play is declining as the season grows long. Those guys should rest while the young ones get their reps in. But the Caps are just gonna do the hockey orthodoxy sleepwalk all the way into the offseason, which will come at the end of the first round of the playoffs.
  • Underlining Washington’s ineptitude, the team got busted for bad line changes (too-many-men penalties) twice.
  • Vitek Vanecek let the first two shots he faced hit the back of the net. After giving up five goals on 23 shots earlier in the week, Vanecek is now officially in the yikes zone. I don’t know what else Washington could have done at the trade deadline, but I don’t like how their goalie position looks now.
  • The frustration was palpable. Alex Ovechkin was throwing cross-checks in the first period. Kuznetsov got busted for one in the second period. Going out on a limb here, but I don’t think the team likes playing this badly.
  • Johan Larsson made his debut for the Washington Capitals in this one. I think Larsson is a very interesting player. Washington is essentially the first non-terrible team he’s played for. And sure, he caused a too-many-men penalty and then wiped out on his big odd-man break, but I’m still overall excited for him.
  • With the Caps chasing the scoreboard from the drop, it’s not a big surprise that they controlled the puck better overall. I’m sure Chris will say as much in the Morning After story tomorrow. The “who drives play?” metagame just doesn’t matter much when the real game — the main game — is already decided.

I don’t want to burn the tape. I want to rub the tape in the team’s face until they learn shame. That’s how petty I am right now. I’m doing the bad dog metaphor.

Anyway. this game sucked. It’s been so long (i.e. one week) since this team has offered a non-yeesh performance. They’ll have two days off, and then they better bring it against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.

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