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No goals, no fun: Canes beat Caps 3-2

By Peter Hassett

 3 Comments

February 14, 2023 9:51 pm

Missing their sweetheart Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals hosted the Carolina Hurricanes to a romantic evening of dating, discussion, and more.

Brent Burns was our first scorer, threading through traffic to put the Canes up 1-0. TJ Oshie scored in the final minute of the first period, taking a great pass from call-up Joe Snively.

In the second, Paul Stastny got a lucky bounce to restore Carolina’s lead, which Joe Snively nullified with a rush goal, but then Brady Skjei’s deflection made it 3-2 Carolina after two.

The Caps sorta scored in the third, but it got called back. So once again they were held to less than three goals, which usually means tonight’s result: Caps lose.

  • The Caps have a major goal-scoring problem. They’ve struggled to score more than two goals in a lot of games, and on Tuesday they had to struggle without their lead scorer, Alex Ovechkin, who is out for family reasons.
  • In his stead: Herndon’s own Joe Snively, called up from Hershey for the first time in the new year – and just in time to score a goal and an assist. Snively was great with the puck, sending an elite pass to TJ Oshie in the first and calling his own number in the second. He was less great without the puck, but whatever: scoreboard.
  • Washington’s power play had to improvise without Alex Ovechkin, who had played 95 percent of the Caps’ PP time prior to tonight. Mostly they slotted Evgeny Kuznetsov in Ovi’s spot, though they didn’t force-feed him passes for a one-timer. I thought the power play was pretty good relatively, which is to say pretty bad objectively, but still unlucky not to have converted.
  • TJ Oshie put a reverse hit into Canes forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the second period. The top of Oshie’s helmet sorta of went into Kotkaniemi’s chin, so the officials called a double-minor. Except then they rescinded it while the broadcast was in commercials. Ultimately that feels like the right call – just a strange sequence of events.
  • Speaking of Oshie, he scored his 11th of the season. He’s clearly not feeling one-hundred percent, but his effort is undeniable. Also undeniable is that he falls down pretty much every shift. I like his spirit, not his play.
  • Anthony Mantha last scored on December 31, 2022. That was 13 games ago. He put three shots on net tonight, plus one rung crossbar. I thought he was very good in this one, aside from the minor detail of not scoring any goals ever, gosh dammit. He’s been unlucky, but at this point the frustration has to be unbearable for everyone involved. Trade deadline’s in two weeks.
  • Trevor van Riemsdyk scored after a spirited net-crash by his teammates to tie the game in the third, but all the fellas in the crease – especially TJ Oshie falling into Freddie Andersen – constituted goalie interference.
  • Matt Irwin had a bad night. I’m sure there are numbers that would back this up, but I am just going by feelings. Carolina feels like particularly tough matchups for a guy like him (old).

Lack of offense continues to kill the Washington Capitals. Unless they get a superhuman performance out of their goalie, they’re going to lose a lot of games like this one. Something’s gotta give soon – even if that something is shooting percentages. But I sincerely hope the team is motivated to make substantial adjustments.

Headline photo: @pennybacker

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