The Washington Capitals’ extended their losing streak to six games with a frustrating defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night.
Max Pacioretty scored his first goal in 18 games thanks to a brilliant pass from Hendrix Lapierre. One period later, Mark Kastelic got Ottawa involved with a rush goal made possible by Jakob Chychrun, but Washington returned to the lead when Aliaksei Protas got a favorable rebound to end a 16-game goal-scoring slump.
With seven minutes left in regulation, Ridley Greig went top-corner to tie it up. The Caps got a point for surviving regulation, but lost promptly in overtime. Jake Sanderson sunk it.
Caps lose in overtime.
- The Senators were tired from playing last night, and the Capitals sure looked like it. The rested team didn’t seem rested at all, and the shot-attempt totals told the story: the Caps nearly getting doubled up by the Sens.
- Rasmus Sandin got injured by Parker Kelly at the buzzer of the first period. The hit was dirty, and it stirred the passions on Dylan Strome (okay), Max Pacioretty (okay), and Tom Wilson (oh, now you’re in trouble). I don’t want to startle you, but Brady Tkachuk was involved in the scrum. Also involved was Mark Kastelic, son of ex-Caps forward Ed Kastelic.
#ALLCAPS Dirty hit to end the 1st period from Ottawa. pic.twitter.com/8VLRTXWdrn
— x – Capitals Replays 🍁 (@capsreplays) April 7, 2024
- Sandin did not play again. The Caps say he has an upper-body injury.
- Tom Wilson also missed about half the second period. It’s less clear what happened with him, but the suspicion is Helldivers-esque friendly fire. Wilson came back for the third.
Capitals-Senators game paused briefly due to Joonas Korpisalo being blinded by the sun
- With Sandin out, John Carlson ate a lot of ice time (28:17). That’s nothing new for Carlson, whose 1000-game milestone was celebrated tonight. I don’t know why I’m doing a graph in a game recap, but I can’t help myself lately. I’m spawning graphs like salmon eggs upriver.
- A big night for slump-busters, as Pacioretty and Protas each scored for the first time since late February. Both those goals were net-front, and both came with a lot of help – Lapierre for the former and Tymora, the god of luck from Forgotten Realms, for the latter.
- Connor McMichael picked a poor time to high-stick Brady Tkachuk, though I can’t fault him for the intent. We all want to do that. Grieg scored at the very end of that power play, and the Caps debated amongst themselves if they were going to challenge it. They didn’t, and thus the team lost their 40th lead of the season.
- I don’t think you should be allowed to have multiple players named Carlson (any spelling) on a single team, and by the same rule I don’t think you should be allowed to have a Tkachuk and a Katchouk on the same team either. Actually, I’m putting a sibling exception in this rule, which I’m just making up as I go along.
- From the Devlin-McGregor out-of-town scoreboard: the Wings downed the Sabres. The Caps will head to Detroit for a game on Tuesday. The “just make it to overtime” energy in that building will be palpable.
on the ice for Johnny's 1000th #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/cCcpzN14kM
— RMNB (@rmnb) April 7, 2024
I didn’t like this game. There wasn’t enough action at either side of the ice, two Caps got banged up, Ovi didn’t score, the start time screwed up my dinner plans, I didn’t like a company that had a digital ad on the boards, I didn’t like the music they played for Carlson’s ceremony, my cat kept sitting on my lap while I was trying to type this, I didn’t see the tiny hockey sticks they got Carlson’s kids, the shot attempt numbers were bad, I have to work tomorrow, and global warming. Oh and the Caps lost.
Wings. Tuesday. A very big game.
