Photo: X/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals completely imploded in another important Metropolitan Division matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes Friday night. After they were knocked out of a Wild Card spot against the New Jersey Devils back on Wednesday, the Caps looked like they were a team hungry to earn that spot back in the early going.
However, it was only for the first 20 minutes of the game. After Washington got out to a 2-0 lead, the Hurricanes stormed back to score six unanswered goals, five of which came in the third period, and two on the power play.
“I didn’t think it was close the entire game,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said after the game. “Even though we had a 2-0 lead, I mean it never felt comfortable and never felt like we had any momentum in that game other than on the scoreboard. So we knew we were in a really difficult spot and we couldn’t flip it.”
With the 6-2 loss, the Capitals have now dropped six out of their last seven games and are in a dog fight with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Bay Lightning and the Philadelphia Flyers for the second Wild Card spot.
PK Struggles; Undisciplined
This is what ultimately cost the Capitals two points. Two unnecessary slashing penalties, on Beck Malenstyn and Evgeny Kuznetsov respectively, resulted in two power-play goals from one of the league’s most dangerous power plays.
“It’s irrelevant to me. To me it’s irrelevant because we have no business being in that situation,” Carbery said. “The game is so lopsided, and they capitalize, but it’s inevitable in those spots when you’re playing on your heels like that.”
The Capitals penalty kill has been quite good this season, however it has struggled as of late giving up six goals in the last six games. What makes Carolina’s power play so dangerous is the volume of shots it throws at the goal.
They aren’t afraid to use the points for shots and Brent Burns’s goal was a perfect example of that. The Hurricanes have a 19.02 shooting percentage on the power play, which is second in the NHL.
“They put their five best guys on the ice, right? They put our five best guys on the ice and look what happened tonight as well,” Nic Dowd said. “But I think we’ve done a good job as a whole. Anytime you put yourself in that situation with penalties, it can get challenging. Just like every night where we lean on something every night. We needed a couple of kills; we didn’t get them and that changed the game.”
The Capitals’ penalty kill is now 17th in the NHL at 79.8%.
Bad D-zone Puck Management.
The Capitals struggled mightily in their own end all night long. They struggled to execute on their breakouts, struggled to win their board battles and struggled to manage the puck. Carolina is known to play an aggressive style of hockey that has its players hunting for pucks on every shift.
The Hurricanes forced so many turnovers and won all the board battles all night long. The Capitals ended the evening with 12 giveaways and gave up 11 high-danger chances at five-on-five. There was one turnover in the first period that left Sebastian Aho wide open in front of Darcy Kuemper, but he ended up ringing the post.
“They play a certain style of hockey, and they are good at it. They chip pucks deep and don’t let us get to the neutral zone and we couldn’t really get past it tonight,” Dylan Strome said. “We did a better job last time we played them in Carolina of getting some more chances, but I think they just smothered us. It felt like every time we got the puck through the neutral zone, they were kind of just on top of us.”
Power Play Cooking
A positive in Friday’s blowout was the power play.
Washington’s man-advantage now has four goals in three games. The Capitals got on the board 15 seconds into their first power play, and it was a perfectly executed play. The Caps had been trying to use the man in front of the net for a tip in for quite some time, but they have not been able to connect. They’ve come close though.
Alex Ovechkin has not been able to get clean looks from his office. So, when the puck does come to him, he looks for the man in front of the net for a deflection. He put it right on Strome’s tape and the puck slid past Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov.
That’s his team-leading 14th goal…
LET’S VOTE STROME HOME#NHLAllStarVote | Dylan Strome pic.twitter.com/VSJrwHIYIe
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 6, 2024
Carbery said after the loss against the Devils that the first power play unit was struggling with their entries and puck retrievals. But this time they didn’t have to worry about that as they capitalized very quickly with that set play.
The Capitals’ power play sits at 27th in the NHL at 14.3%. It was 1-for-3 against Carolina.
Notable Numbers and Observations
- Nick Jensen and Joel Edmundson continue to struggle as a pair. On Seth Jarvis’s tying goal, both of them went chasing behind the net. While the goal was ultimately on Darcy Kuemper, he didn’t get much help from the duo.
- Darcy Kuemper was relatively solid throughout the night outside of Jarvis’s goal.
- The Hurricanes generated 32 scoring chances at 5v5.
- The Capitals struggled mightily in the faceoff dot going 39.3%.
- Beck Malenstyn has points in three straight games with his assist on Nic Dowd’s opening tally.
The Capitals will look to get back into the win column on Sunday for an afternoon showdown against the Los Angeles Kings.
By Jacob Cheris
