Ottawa 4, Caps 3 (OT)
This one hurt. But it isn’t a total surprise. The Caps have struggled all season to put teams away. They’ve talked about it over and over. Yet it keeps happening. This time it was a 3-1 lead that disappeared. The Senators played with a lot more energy and passion in the final period and the Caps didn’t match them. They were outshot 18-3 in the third. Let me repeat that – 18-3. Now, they did take three penalties – another troubling theme early this season in the final period. But still…they were shorthanded 5 minutes, 10 seconds and had a power play themselves for two full minutes. That shouldn’t result in an 18-3 advantage for the Senators.
Don’t blame goalie Semyon Varlamov for this one. The rookie didn’t face all that many shots in the first two periods. But the ones he did see were pretty good chances. Ottawa played with good energy the first 15 minutes and again in the final 20. The Senators sent pucks on net. They got to the front and won battles and tipped home three shots, including Mike Fisher’s game winner in OT. The only one that wasn’t tipped was a perfect screen on Alex Picard’s power-play goal in the third that tied the game.
“We left our poor goalie out to dry,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters in Ottawa after the game.
Alex Ovechkin, Chris Clark and John Erskine all took penalties in the third period. That after Washington had gone 40 minutes without committing a single one. Ovechkin thought his roughing call was questionable. But Clark’s was an offensive-zone infraction for tripping. It may not have led to a goal. But it certainly didn’t help for a team playing its third game in four nights. The Caps looked gassed in overtime. Varlamov bailed them out with an amazing save on a 2-on-1. But he couldn’t follow that up moments later as Fisher tipped home a shot/pass by teammate Chris Phillips. Include overtime and the Senators finished the game with a 22-4 shots advantage over the final 25 minutes. Yikes!
Mike Green will take some abuse for this one and it would be hard to defend him too much. He did assist on Brendan Morrison’s goal late in the first-period and it was a beautiful pass. But Green’s giveaway led to the first 2-on-1 in overtime and then he stepped up and missed the puck at center ice, leading to yet another 2-on-1. He had some awful giveaways in this one – one directly in front of his own net. Green will have to put this one behind him quick. But it certainly isn’t all on him. The Caps had the ice tilted on them after the early goal in the third by Chris Neil and then couldn’t find a way out as they kept sending guys to the box.
“This was a collapse by 20 guys,” Boudreau said afterwards. “I don’t know how else to sugercoat it.”
» Thanks to Caps PR for sending along audio files of Boudreau, Clark and Jay Beagle, who recorded his first NHL goal in the second period.
» Green did extend his point streak to seven games with his assist on Brendan Morrison’s goal. He earlier had a nine-game point streak and is the only player in the NHL this season with two streaks of seven or more.
» Morrison notched his eighth of the season and No. 6 on the road.
» Final shot total was 37-28 for Ottawa. It was 25-15 Caps after the second period.
» Give credit to Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott, too. He made a bunch of nice saves to keep his team in the game. Stopped 25 of 28 shots on the night.
» Caps (13-5-6, 32 points) are now tied with the Penguins (16-8) for first place in the Eastern Conference after 24 games. Both teams have had injuries. But I think Pittsburgh losing virtually its entire corps of defensemen wins with that excuse.
