The Washington Capitals were humbled 5-0 by the Edmonton Oilers on Black Friday.
After a poor start, the Capitals surrendered two hard-working goals in front of the net to Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. In the second period, Evan Bouchard scored once and Leon Draisaitl scored twice on three different Oilers power plays to put the game out of reach.
Connor McDavid snapped a career-high four game pointless streak, registering four assists in the game. The four-point outing was McDavid’s 34th career 4+ point outing including the regular season and playoffs.
“Yeah, wasn’t good at all,” a seething Spencer Carbery said after the game. “Wasn’t good at all. Right from the drop of the puck, not good.
“It’s difficult to play against a team of that caliber when they have the puck the entire night. And any time we get it, it just doesn’t connect and we give it right back. Obviously, if you do the math, you give Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins the puck all night — three of the best players on the planet — it’s going to be difficult and that’s essentially what [happened].”
Coming into their afternoon tilt against the Oilers, the Capitals were on a five-game winning streak and had won nine of their last 11, losing only once in regulation during that span. The matchup against Edmonton marked the end of a four-game homestand and a stretch where the Caps played nine of their last 11 games in their home barn.
Meanwhile, the Oilers were looking for any opening to start a hot stretch of their own. After having the sixth-most standings points in the NHL last season, Edmonton has fallen to the bottom of the standings due to poor goaltending. They had lost the first three games of their four-game road trip, giving up five-or-more-goals every night.
“It’s really disappointing,” Carbery said. “We’ve done a lot of good things and I’m sure we’ll talk about that. It’s disappointing — you’re going to lose games in this league, you’re not going to have your best — to play like that coming off Thanksgiving before we go on the road, to me it’s a very very immature game from almost something you would expect from a young team that thinks they’re already in California and halfway on the plane before it starts.
“Obviously, you do that against a team that’s playing for its life and feels like their season is on the line, good luck. It’s not even close and that’s what you just witnessed.”
Capitals’ players, including members of the leadership team, were equally as frustrated.
“I think we didn’t play at all,” Ovechkin said. “We give them lots of space obviously. When they control the puck it’s dangerous. In the first period especially, we make lots of turnovers, make mistakes and they get lead 2-0.”
The first period saw the Capitals out-attempted at five-on-five 32 to 9, out-chanced 14-4, and dominated in high-danger chances 8-2. Every Caps player had poor process stats, but Joel Edmundson and Nick Jensen were utterly dominated during those first 20 minutes. The Capitals had two attempts-for with Edmundson on the ice and 19 against; Jensen had 1 attempt-for and 15 against. The Oilers out-shot the Capitals 22 to 6 at all strengths.
“I think we got off to an average at best start,” John Carlson said. “Kind of the latter half of the first period they started taking it to us. We’ve gotta have more composure and better awareness. When they score a lot of power play goals, it’s not going to be an easy game.”
“They are a desperate team,” Tom Wilson added. “We probably didn’t have enough urgency off the hop. We had a good homestand, (were) feeling good about our game.”
The only time the goal horn sounded for the Capitals was when Alex Ovechkin potted a goal off an Evgeny Kuznetsov faceoff win that was ultimately waved off by officials due to a misdraw in the third period.
“It’s frustrating,” Rasmus Sandin said. “It’s never fun losing 5-0 at home in front of a crowd that was with us today. You’re not going to win 82 games in the regular season, but at the same time, it sucks losing.”
“Those kind of games happen,” Ovechkin added. “Kind of a, not a wake-up call, but shows when we think about not the right play, not the the right situation, make a stupid decisions , bad passes, turnovers, and it cost us the game. When we play simple, we forecheck, put the puck in their zone, it gives us some confidence and more chances.”
The Capitals will now embark on a West Coast trip that will see them play the next five games on the road, featuring matchups against the San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Vegas Golden Knights, and Arizona Coyotes. The players were asked the best way to move on.
“Pretty easy,” Carlson said. “We go on the road trip, practice, get better, and start again.”
Wilson countered, “We’ll review this one, get rid of it, and get back to where we left off.”
Headline photo: Emily Longtin
