Losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Saturday matinee on home ice, the Washington Capitals couldn’t create enough offense, putting them on a season-worst three-game losing streak.
After Jakob Chychrun’s goal got overturned, Bolts winger Mitchell Chaffee fired a quick shot to beat Logan Thompson, making it 1-0 after twenty minutes. That score held through the second, even if the Caps had the puck a lot.
In the third, Jonas Goncalves had a couple screens helping him out to give him two goals on the season and his team two in this game. Alex Ovechkin cracked the shutout on a broken play. Brandon Hagel got an empty-netter, and that was that.
Caps lose. Three-game losing streak.
- Jakob Chychrun would have had yet another goal from high up in the zone — it would have been his ninth from there by my reckoning — but the goal was nullified because the Caps played the puck with a high stick well before that. If that hadn’t washed out the goal, I wonder if the Bolts would have pushed for a goaltender interference as well. It wasn’t mean to be.
- This was not a highlight-heavy game, but Brandon Duhaime laying a heavy hit on Jonas Goncalves and then getting a fresh stick off the bench in one continuous motion has to qualify.
max efficiency by dewey here pic.twitter.com/ZEeOIieBRN
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 1, 2025
- Connor McMichael and Nick Perbix (great name) got rough with each other in the second period. There’s a gap of four inches and about thirty pounds between them, so I have to wonder if there was a case mistaken identity.
- The Caps controlled the puck well all game, but the Lightning had a stifling defense, keeping them out of the high-danger areas. And when they did get deep, like with Aliaksei Protas‘ breakaway in the third period, there waiting was Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has been very good at the Caps over the past three seasons. Even worse, Washington’s most dangerous shooters weren’t their most productive. The majority of Ovechkin’s attempts went off blocking Bolts players.
- And then Tampa scored on their first shot of third period, dooming Washington to their first three-game losing streak of the season. It just wasn’t meant to be.
- But on a scramble late in the third period, Alex Ovechkin‘s quick release beat Vas for the first time and brought the Caps within one goal. His 31st of the season, the 884th of his career. He’s eleven away. I’d say eleven shy, but Ovi hasn’t been shy since before perestroika.
- From the Lumon Industries out-of-town scoreboard, the Rangers traded Charlie’s brother Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche along with Jimmy Vesey. John Shannon, late of Rogers Sportsnet, pondered if that means GM Chris Drury is giving up on the season. No way, John. The Rangers vented two struggling players, they were on a playoff pace (okay, 91 points) in February, and they’ve still got a thirty percent chance to make the loffs according to HockeyViz. They’re still in it.
#joebsuitofthenight of the early afternoon pic.twitter.com/SRHtLscFHe
— RMNB (@rmnb) March 1, 2025
After scoring 15 goals in back-to-back games a week ago, the Caps are averaging just 1.7 goals over the last three games. You can’t build a winning season on finishing alone, but we can talk about that more in tomorrow’s Snapshot. For now, the Caps need to find a way to combine possession (which was good today) with actual playmaking. Competent counterplay, like what Tampa showed us today, will be the norm in the postseason, so might as well get ready for it now.
The Caps have more game in this homestand, and it’s coming against the Senators on Monday at — what the dickens — 6:30 PM. Who is responsible for this.
