The Washington Capitals have been handed two reality checks in as many games by Western Conference opposition. The Edmonton Oilers are the latest to do so as the Cup-contending crew led by Connor McDavid found the end zone and kicked the extra point on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
The “critical” road trip starts with the Capitals 0-2 and out-scored 10-2 in those two losses.
- The Capitals didn’t even really get dominated at five-on-five in this game. A lot of Edmonton’s damage came on the power play, off of rush chances, and off of really bad individual errors from the Capitals. Believe it or not, the high-danger chance tally only ended 13-12 in favor of the Oilers. There is just a difference in talent between these two teams right now as Edmonton is in full contender mode and the Capitals are…retooling…or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days.
- I was really happy with the effort that Washington’s young kids showed despite the lopsided final score. Particularly the play of Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko. Those two are growing in confidence on a game-by-game basis in unique ways. Miro potted his second career NHL goal on a ridiculous fadeaway snipe and showed off more of his physicality and puck pressure. Lapierre was not daunted by the task of lining up against either Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl and without some poor bounces and Stuart Skinner going X-Games-mode on Alex Ovechkin 65 times could have ended up with multiple points.
- Alex Ovechkin did take sole possession of 14th on the NHL’s all-time, point-scoring list with an assist on Connor McMichael’s goal. Per Capitals PR, Ovi has recorded 29 points (12g, 17a) in his last 28 games.
Tonight's 7-2 loss to the Oilers marks the sixth time this season Darcy Kuemper has surrendered five-or-more goals.
Kuemper's given up three-or-more goals in 20 of his 30 appearances this season.
He's given up six goals once and now a season-worst seven against the Oilers.
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 14, 2024
- Pretty disastrous return for Martin Fehervary to the lineup. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals held negative differentials in shot attempts (-12), scoring chances (-8), and high-danger chances (-6). He also handed the Oilers one of their goals with a bad turnover in the neutral zone and was on the ice for another.
- Three power-play goals for Edmonton. Not a good night for the penalty kill.
- The Philadelphia Flyers beat the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night so they’ve extended their lead over the Capitals for third in the Metropolitan Division to seven points. While the Capitals still have two games in hand, this road trip is definitely not helping matters. In the wild card race, the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings are both three points ahead of the Capitals for the last spot there and the Capitals have one game in hand on Detroit.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
