The Washington Capitals lost to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday evening. Duh.
Parker Kelly tipped Cale Makar‘s shot to give the Avs an early lead. Jakob Chychrun (obviously) scored through traffic to tie it after twenty minutes.
Nate MacKinnon did what a Nate MacKinnon does, skill-gapping the Caps to restore Colorado’s lead, which doubled when Victor Olofsson nabbed a rebound. Ethen Frank returned fire 17 seconds later, with a big assist from Ovechkin.
Cale Makar had a goal overturned in the third, only for Artturi Lehkonen to earn it back a couple shifts later. Rasmus Sandin fumbled the puck behind the net, giving Nate MacKinnon an easy one.
Caps lose.
- I don’t have a paper calendar, but if I did I’d have had this game circled on it. The Avs are on a haughty points pace – I think like 130. They’ve lost in regulation on home ice once. The only thing they’re not lights-out elite at is the power play, and MacKinnon scored on that anyway. I’m not saying this was a scheduled loss; I’m just saying my expectations were tempered.
- The Caps got three power plays to start the day. I missed the first one because Sebulba needed a diaper change, and I was told my time was better spent that way. I’m always happy to see the Caps score, but there’s this tinge of sadness if it’s a power-play goal, as it’ll just forestall what the team should have done a couple months ago.
- Justin Sourdif returned from injury. He drew a penalty on his first shift.
- I was deflated by the Olofsson goal. Ethen Frank – who had been kind of crummy in his last two appearances – redeemed the team immediately with his 11th goal. And I want to call out the assist:
- That’s a heads-up play by Alex Ovechkin for his 22nd assist of the season. I kind of lazily assume Ovechkin regularly has more goals than assists, but it didn’t really happen much until the late 2010s. Given how nice his passing has been this season, I think it’ll be neck-and-neck again. And then who knows about next season. Wink.
- For a while Jakob Chychrun was the only guy who could score on the roster. He did it again today, but he also committed two penalties – one a double-minor for high-sticking – and he was on the ice for the Kelly goal.
- A lot went wrong on the disallowed Makar goal. Strome wiped out, and Protas utterly lost his man, but – and instead of explaining goalie interference here just imagine me waving my hands around in exasperation. At least it went Washington’s way for once.
- I mentioned the skill gap above. On separate plays, Nate MacKinnon and Brock Nelson both carved the Caps defenders like a honey-baked ham. The Caps just don’t have that star power right now. Given how yipped-out Strome has been lately, I think Frank might be the closest to it right now? Eeek.
- I try not to complain about refs too often in these recaps, if only because I’d get repetitive. But these refs were silly. The trip on Wedgewood was soft. The hook on Beauvillier was even softer. And the make-up hook on Nelson was basically fraud.
- You can’t say any goalie was good if they see five (six?) pucks get past them, but Charlie Lindgren at least was busy. Nearly forty saves.
- Hendrix Lapierre ice-time check: 7:37. His most ice in ten days! Good for him! Gold star.
into the buzzsaw we go #joebsuitofthenight
The Caps lost the game we expected them to lose. The problem isn’t the loss – it’s just the one game – the problem is the expectation, hard-won and well-deserved, that the Caps can’t compete.
That’s it. They just can’t compete. They’ve got elite players who are slumping, a core piece on LTIR, middle-six players waiting to break out, depth players who are suddenly not dependable, an acronymed defender who can’t hold the blue line anymore, another monosyllabic defender who has been a mess on the PK.
Their power play is the worst in the league and they haven’t won two games in a row in a month and a half.
They’re not a good hockey team.
And now they’ll ask you to stay up past midnight to watch do whatever it is they think they’re doing as they tour the western conference. The temerity of that.
