Freak game. The Washington Capitals were due for a freak game. Freak game is when the game makes no sense and is freaky, and the Caps’ loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday was a freak game.
Adam Pulock scored on the Islander’s first shot. He had some help from a Capitals player screening the goalie – we’ll discuss that player in a moment. For the Islanders’ second shot, Simon Holmstrom finished off a two-0n-one rush, where Washington’s “one” was the same player I mentioned above.
Brock Nelson made it 3-0 in the second period with an odd-man rush because a Caps player – again, the same guy – fell down. TJ Oshie almost scored but it didn’t count, so the shutout was official.
Caps lose.
- John Carlson. He was the guy who screened Kuemper on the first goal and misplayed the breakaway on the second goal and lost the play on the third goal. Blame him all you want, but also consider that I sang his praises in the snapshot earlier today, so this is on me too.
- Darcy Kuemper allowed two goals on two shots in the first period. That’s as bad as you can do, and yet I don’t know exactly how much to fault him. The Islanders were rarely on attack, and when they did – well, those first two were very dangerous chances. Still, regarding Darcy, I cannot forget the follies and vices of others so soon as I ought, nor their offences against myself.
- Freaky. Between the two nets, this game was a clinic by Washington, who won almost every shift. I’ll let Chris tell the story in NFTMA tomorrow, but this was puck-possession domination from the Caps, who have steadily improved at controlling play as the season grows. But once they’re in the offensive zone, the passes aren’t there, and whiffs are too common. Some of that’s bad luck, but some of that has to be a lack of high-end skill. If anyone could create passing chemistry with Alex Ovechkin, that’d be nice.
- I hate the new Beatles song. It’s grotesque.
- Two players who deserve credit for Washington’s positive possession play were two players playing in positions belonging to other players. Connor McMichael moved from the wing to become 3C with Backstrom out. Hendrix Lapierre doesn’t even go here. Both of those young bucks were north of 70 percent in shot-attempt share, so we saw them around Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov a lot; they just couldn’t make chances that counted.
- I just said that TJ Oshie was due. He remains due as his third-period goal was waved off for goalie interference. I don’t know who’s tracking Oshie_Falls_Down events, but he was definitely falling down on that play. His called-back goal was Washington’s fourth in the last two weeks.
- New York’s Adam Pelech (not to be confused and yet frequently confused by me with Ryan Pulock) exited the game in the first period after a hit with Aliaksei Protas. Looks like something with his hip, which seems bad.
Tonight's malign energy is our fault, we forgot to share the #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/SWHh3kdJgo
— RMNB (@rmnb) November 3, 2023
Gotta have a freak game every once in a while. Gotta have a game where you play every shift right, but you can’t finish any chances and one single guy goofs enough times that it explodes Moneypuck’s Deserve-to-Win O’Meter.
It happens. It sucks, but it happens. Sure would have been nice to get some standings points off of the Islanders though. If the Caps are going to make the loffs, they have to go through the Isles.
Headline photo: Kurly from Crashers
