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Not thankful for any of that: Oilers beat Capitals 5-0

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The Washington Capitals hosted Connor McDavid and the rest of the struggling Edmonton Oilers on Friday afternoon. Could one of the coldest teams in the league come into DC and take down the hottest team in the league? Uh, yes.

Evander Kane opened the scoring after Leon Draisaitl spun Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins doubled that lead with a mid-air poke past Charlie Lindgren. Evan Bouchard struck on a power play to make it three. Draisaitl for four and five.

Oilers beat Capitals 5-0.

  • The Capitals played the first two minutes of the first period and then took the rest of it off. A legitimately awful 20 minutes to start this game. Just an uninterested, lazy, effort full of failed clears, careless defense, puck watching, sloppy passing, whiffs, and just looking generally slow as molasses. Great way to give a limping team like the Oilers all the confidence in the world. Edmonton finished the frame up 24 in shot attempts, up 11 in scoring chances, and up 6 in high-danger chances.
  • Not a whole lot went correctly with anyone on the ice in the first but things sure went horribly with Nick Jensen skating. At five-on-five with Jensen on the ice, the Capitals got out-attempted 19 to 2, out-scoring chanced 12 to 0, and out-high danger chanced 6 to 0. That tracked with my eye test as well. He has been very bad to start this season and that contract extension is looking mighty questionable.
  • The NHL threatened Marc-Andre Fleury and the Minnesota Wild with large fines today because Fleury wanted to wear a really cool mask designed in honor of his wife for Native American Heritage Night. Gary Bettman ensuring that the horror of letting MAF do a good, cool thing cannot cause other NHL players to want to do more good, cool things.

  • I mean the Capitals actually started to play better in the second but some terrible officiating and bad luck saw them face the same result as they did in the first. They kinda just gave up after that. Just one of those games where it was clear quite early on that the Capitals weren’t going to be winners.
  • TJ Oshie was taken out of the game early in the second after taking a high hit from Mattias Ekholm. I don’t think Ekholm meant it, but I also don’t think that should matter. I know for a fact that it hasn’t mattered more than a handful of times for Tom Wilson. At the least, it’s an obvious interference penalty. The Capitals got nothing and the Oilers took advantage of their frustration and put the game away.
  • Speaking of officiating, Wes McCauley is terrible at his job. There is no ref in the league, after Tim Peel was forced into retirement, that has games get out of hand more and seemingly makes personal penalty calls when he gets upset at certain players. The ever-positive Steve Dangle even hates him.
  • The Capitals will have not scored a power play goal in a literal month the next time they are on the ice. Let that one sink in.

  • Nothing doing in the third. Capitals get shut out for the third time this season.
  • All winning streaks come to an end. Not the end of the world. You would prefer it happen in a closer game but at least it’s a full reset. I guess. I’m trying to be positive.
  • Afternoon games after Thanksgiving should be illegal.

The Capitals are headed out on a California road trip tonight. The first matchup comes on Monday against the San Jose Sharks.

Headline photo via Emily Longtin

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