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The Caps apparently really want to play the Florida Panthers: Islanders beat Capitals 5-1

By Chris Cerullo

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April 28, 2022 9:35 pm

An Ovi-less Washington Capitals matched up with the New York Islanders again with a chance to move ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division. Could they try and help themselves avoid that Florida Panthers first-round series?

Brock Nelson and Anders Lee both struck on the power play to give the Isles a 2-0 lead after twenty minutes. Nada in the second. Jean-Gabriel Pageau for the third. Kyle Palmieri for four. Josh Bailey dunks on the Caps for five.

AJF with his second career goal.

Islanders beat Capitals 5-1.

  • The New York Islanders are so relentlessly boring and their style really, really works when they’re getting the sort of calls they did in that first period. They did literally nothing at five-on-five but were gifted two power-play goals to give them a lead.
  • It’d be nice if the Caps’ penalty kill hadn’t completely lost the plot though…again. Four goals allowed on five opportunities in four straight periods against New York.
  • I have no idea what that officiating was. In three simple words I would call it “ref show trash”. Alan May was entirely right to be baffled by some of those calls.

  • The second wasn’t good. The Isles just did their thing and bored the game to death. I liked the finish and AJF drawing two separate cross-checking penalties on Adam Pelech but just not enough offensively.
  • Y’all, I miss Ovi.
  • Can they stop taking penalties like four seconds into their own power plays…please? Lord.
  • Something tells me Semyon Varlamov should have been in the other jersey tonight. Would have probably been a good idea, but hey Vitek had me fooled for a month or so too.

  • Question for you. Does it look like they even cared one iota in that third period? Yeesh.
  • That hit from Garnet Hathaway on Sebastian Aho was really bad and he’s incredibly lucky he only ended up with two minutes and that Aho was not injured. Oliver Wahlstrom tried to jump him for it and got made to look like an absolute clown. Ole Wally got thrown to the ice like a child.
  • The power play without Ovi makes me want to never watch hockey again. The penalty kill has somehow been even worse in these past two games.

The Caps will wrap up their regular season against the New York Rangers tomorrow. Will we see Alex Ovechkin?

Headline photo courtesy of the great Craig Laughlin (@Laughlin18/Twitter)

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