In their blowout loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Washington Capitals did little to assuage worries that they’re a team in decline. This game is in a tight competition for worst game of the year, neck-and-neck with most of the other games of the last two weeks.
Ryan’s brother John Leonard opened scoring for both his team and his NHL career by crashing the net. Trevor’s brother James van Riemsdyk doubled the lead by seizing on a rebound.
The Wings earned two more goals in the second period: Soderblom outmanuevered Strome to score backhanded, then Seider scored on a breakaway. Aliaksei Protas busted up the shutout before intermission arrived.
Marty Fehervary beat John Gibson on an improvised shot to make the third period a little more interesting, but not that much more interesting. Jakob Chychrun had a goal overturned for interference – more on that in a moment – and they couldn’t effect a real comeback. Dylan Larkin, who totally dived on the Carlson hooking penalty, got a long-distance empty-netter.
Caps lose.
- Whatever it is – the it that makes a team capable of being good like they had been earlier in the season, the Caps didn’t have it. They were getting outshot 13 to 5 during five-on-five at the end of the first period. They’ve been getting more and more outshot in more and more games. It’s concerning.
- Wings winger John Leonard, brother of rapidly recovering Caps winger Ryan Leonard, played in his third NHL game on Sunday and recorded his first NHL goal in the first period. That’s the kind of goal you can build a career on.
- Another Caps brother, James van Riemsdyk, lit up the Caps net. Real Mario/Luigi hours. Or maybe Luigi/Waluigi. Wait, what is the relationship between Luigi and Waluigi? Mario and Luigi are brothers. Wario and Waluigi and brothers. Wario is Mario’s childhood rival? Waluigi is my instalock Mario Kart character, but I don’t know if he has a material or genetic connection to Luigi. I don’t know if he has genes. Anyway, the Caps won’t have to play any more siblings for 22 hours, so we don’t have to worry.
- Aliaksei Protas has goals in back-to-back games. Thank you for ending the shutout, Pro, somewhat singlehanded. And thank you, Wings goalie John Gibson, for being so deep in the net there.
- Protas was the main character again when Jakob Chychrun scored only to have it nullified because Protas interfered with Gibson. Washington’s argument – and probably yours as well – is that Ben Chiarot pushed Protas into Gibson, and then Gibson chose to engage Protas. You’re right about that. But Protas also made himself comfy in the paint, putting his glove on the crossbar and sorta compelling Gibson to respond. I think it was the right call, but I’m so grumpy about this game that I don’t want you to trust my analysis. I’ve been compromised.
- When a game starts going bad, I start looking at it differently. I think, for each shift, which team won that unit of time? Wilson-Protas-Sourdif had a good one at the end of the first. Ovechkin’s line had a good shift prior to the Protas hooking penalty. Otherwise, it was the Wings winning, almost always, until the third. Before that, I can’t think of two back-to-back shifts where the Caps looked dangerous.
- There was a line-up shake-up in the third period. I never get to do the cute lineup component we built for the website, so here it is:
- The Caps player who had the best day was probably Hendrix Lapierre, healthy-scratched, allegedly trade bait, but at least untainted by this mess.
#joebsuitofthenight of the noon thirtylooking pretty 480p for some reason
I don’t think we’re allowed to say “burn the tape” anymore. We need to sear the tape into the eyeballs of the Caps. Or, alternately, we need to run a series of blood tests and invasive swabs to see if they have Epstein-Barr or something. They need to release the files.
See you tomorrow at 1 PM.
