Everything went wrong and was bad and sucked in the Washington Capitals’ road loss to the New York Islanders on Friday night. Embarrassing. I’m humiliated over here. I’m so ruined by this, I’m getting bashful. I’m canceling my weekend plans and I’m gonna rewatch Buffy.
The Caps didn’t get scored on in the first period, but they did lose two players to injury. Bad backchecking burned them in the second as Pageau and Dobson each got rush goals. Then they just stopped trying in the third period, which was nice for Julien Gauthier, who scored two goals in twenty seconds, escorting us politely into hell. Pageau made it 5-0 as I stared vacantly into the middle distance.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel got a goal in the final minute, but I was in a full-blown depressive episode blackout by that point, so I didn’t even see how badly Ilya Sorokin misplayed what was scarcely even a shot attempt by NAK.
Caps lose.
Five goals for the opponent in a blowout loss? That means it’s time for a reverse Bailamos. Volume at maximum. Blast this right into your vestibular nerve.
- Charlie Lindgren left the game early in the first period after taking a shot from Brock Nelson. He has an upper-body injury.
- Martin Fehervary left the game early in the first period after a trip from Anders Lee. He has an upper-body injury.
- Those exits happened at the same time. The Capitals spent 54 minutes down one skater and their starting goalie. I’m sure that led to some of their poor play without the puck, and it certainly forced John Carlson to play some extra shifts. He was above 27 minutes at my last look.
- This was a terrible game for Washington. They were chasing the puck all night long. They couldn’t defend their blue line. They couldn’t connect passes to create scoring chances. They couldn’t even clog shooting lanes. Disappointing across the board.
- Let’s feel better for a second by checking out how Ilya Samsonov is faring. Looking at the Aramco out-of-town scoreboard, Samsonov gave up 4 goals on eleven shots before his team clawed back into the lead – then he gave up another goal. Poor guy.
On the bright side, at least you're not Ilya Samsonov pic.twitter.com/4HS1twcyNu
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 30, 2023
- The experiment of putting Connor McMichael next to Ovechkin did not yield any goals, but I daresay they were the best line, which is not saying much on a night like this. Come the third period, Carbery put Evgeny Kuznetsov back on the top line, which is a worrying habit for the head coach. Kuznetsov’s supermassive defensive play was a contributing factor on the first Pageau goal.
- I wrote about this phenomenon this morning. When the Capitals lose, they get dunked on with huge goal totals. I wonder if they’re not as alarmed by this as they should be. Like in the front office.
A regal purple for tonight's division rivalry game #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/v58Ng266od
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 30, 2023
I’m frustrated by this game. Often when a team loses a player early, they’ll dig deep and all give a little extra effort to make good. When this team lost two players early, it’s like they figured they had an excuse prepared for the loss. As soon as they faced a little hardship they acted like it was hopeless, like they were facing the Nameless King without any Estus Flasks.
And with this crummy loss following that crummy Rangers loss, and with the team’s scoring still banished to the nether-realm, everything seems awful.
At least the Capitals have upwards of 21 hours to regroup before they host the Preds tomorrow.
Headline photo: @Morgz88
