The Washington Capitals saw another game slip through their fingers Friday night, dropping their fifth-straight contest with a 4-2 defeat against the Carolina Hurricanes. While the Canes outplayed Washington up and down the ice all night, the Caps were close to pulling a rabbit out of their hat thanks to two first-period goals from Alex Ovechkin.
But when the Capitals took two penalties in the final ten minutes, goals from Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho flipped the score in Carolina’s favor before an empty-netter from Jake Guentzel sealed the game with five seconds to go.
That final penalty, a hooking call on Rasmus Sandin against Aho, drew particular ire from the Capitals postgame. The team was already frustrated when Evgeny Kuznetsov escaped a penalty after potentially tripping Nick Jensen, then Aho drew an arguably questionable call just over a minute later. In the Capitals’ view, Aho tripped over Kuemper’s pad on a legal play — and the subsequent power play turned into the game-winning goal.
Head coach Spencer Carbery remained adamant postgame that officials got the call wrong, referencing referee Corey Syvret by name when speaking with the media.
“I mean, Corey, yeah — it’s just when he watches it back, he’ll see what everybody else saw,” Carbery said. “And he’s on the back side of that too, so you’re guessing at that point because you don’t have the sight line to be able to see there. And if you watch the replay, it’s actually Kuemper — it’s not Sandin, it’s Kuemper and the puck is there and he goes to swipe at the puck and that’s what gets Aho’s skates. And so that, yeah, it’s the wrong call.”
By the time Aho scored on the power play, Carolina had dominated the Capitals nearly all night. The Canes outshot the Caps 45-16 overall and out-attempted them 73-26 during five-on-five play, where Carolina ended with a whopping 68.2% of scoring chances and 65.3% of expected goals. Carolina had every reason to win — but the penalty proved the final nail in the coffin for Washington.
Dylan Strome was particularly riled up on the bench after the call, shown on the broadcast yelling and slamming his stick on the bench. He reiterated that frustration after the loss.
“Obviously you saw a reaction after that last call,” Strome said. “I think that’s just — I felt like the puck was past the net and there’s a bunch of sticks in there and he kind of trips after the puck’s gone. And that play happens so many times in the game it’s just disappointing. I felt like they were letting a lot of things go in the third, both ways, and then with two minutes and 18 seconds left, that call that one. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
To Strome, the night’s officiating felt tilted for much of the game after Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour complained when an intentional offsides ruling allowed Ovechkin to score his second of the contest.
“Obviously we’ve got to keep our composure, I guess, but these are important games, important times of the year, and I just thought that they were letting it go,” Strome said. “And it felt like ever since ever since we scored O’s second goal, when they did the automatic offside, it felt like their their bench was really in there in the refs’ ear. It felt like they they were talking to them quite often and you felt like calls were going to swing their way.
“It’s unfortunate. That’s hockey sometimes. Whether it was intentional offside or not, I don’t know. Whether it was a trip or not, I don’t know. We put ourselves in not a great position by getting some penalties, and that’s hockey sometimes.”
Though he didn’t specifically reference the non-call on Kuznetsov during his postgame media availability, Strome later liked a tweet criticizing the referee’s decision on that play.
HOLY SHITTYTT pic.twitter.com/zO11V15TQO
— x – Capitals Replays 🍁 (@capsreplays) April 6, 2024
Tom Wilson was more oblique when talking about the officiating — he instead focused on the call’s meaning to a group of players desperately clinging to hopes of a playoff spot. Help from the out-of-town scoreboard kept the Caps within a point of a playoff spot, but they know they’re running out of time to right the ship.
“I think we battled hard,” Wilson said, visibly emotional. “Guys were giving it their all. That’s why it hurts at the end when some stuff outside of our control comes into the game. It’s tough, but you see the care in this room. You see the pride. Obviously they came hard and they shot a lot of pucks at the net and guys were sacrificing. Guys were trying their best. And just a couple unfortunate things at the end of the game, we can’t push it to overtime, and it’s a crappy feeling.”
Six games and 11 days remain in Washington’s regular season schedule. In less than two weeks, the Caps could be preparing for a first-round series, or they could be on their way home after missing the postseason for the second year in a row. With the season coming down to the wire, the Capitals will have to make every remaining game count.
“No time to dwell,” Strome said. “Six games left, so I think if we go six-and-oh we put ourselves in a pretty good spot.”
