The Capitals came out strong and looked great in the third period, but were ultimately doomed by everything that happened in between in a 4-3 loss ot the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Check out a recap of the game here.
Observations from the loss
Eye of the Tiger
Lars Eller was a man on a mission in this game, easily the best player on the ice for the Capitals. He was a bit too physical to start early in the game and took an unnecessary penalty with an interference on Patric Hornqvist, which Eller admitted afterward, but that intensity fueled him to a huge game and his physical play was something he put an emphasis on coming in.
"Probably is our biggest rival and you are fired up for these games, sometimes a little too much first couple shifts, but you know, would rather do too much sometimes, than too little," Eller said, "And you got to be engaged and you got to keep your emotions in check, but I don't think, [we played with] the right physicality the first two periods like we did in the third. We were all over them."
Capitals coach Todd Reirden lamented afterward that when the team gets that kind of game from the third line, it needs to find a way to win that game.
"That's the disappointing part from that because you get contributions from [Eller] in that area and to end up on the losing end, that's something we've got to work towards," Reirden said.
While Reirden seemed pleased with the third line overall, that was not the case in the first period when Richard Panik played only 59 seconds. Reirden said part of that was due to special teams with both teams trading penalties, but then said, "There's some detail things that also occurred in that period, but that's a continued process for lots of players on our team as we're getting into the importance of little details on faceoffs and whatnot that can come back to haunt you in games at that intensity and that importance."
Samsonov was good, but not great
Ilya Samsonov got the start and was pretty good overall, but it was not his best game. In an important rivalry game, you can't get beat cleanly by a fourth-line player recalled one day earlier from the AHL like Samsonov was by Sam Lafferty. Great shot, but one Samsonov needed to have. He then tipped the puck into his own net off a redirect by Hornqvist. That's a rough first period.
It was encouraging how Samsonov responded, however, allowing only two goals the rest of the game, one of which was a fluke bounce over Dmitry Orlov's stick. One of his strengths as a netminder is his ability to overcome a tough period. A bad start would doom many goalies to a bad game, but not Samsonov.
This will not go down as Samsonov's best game, but he did enough to keep Washington in it. If this is what counts as a "bad" game for a rookie goalie, you absolutely take that.
The power play is still a problem
The Caps tried a new alignment on the power play with Alex Ovechkin on the right and Nicklas Backstrom on the left. Later in the game, they abandoned it for the traditional formation. This is something we may see more of over time as Reirden said, "We want to try to be a little bit more unpredictable is something we've talked about for quite some time. That was our first game attempt of looking to do something that was a different set so that's going to be a little bit of a work in progress."
With the power play struggling, the team has been using the second unit a lot more than we usually see. If that continues, they have to give Evgeny Kuznetsov more tools to work with. With all due respect to Brendan Leipsic, if he is the guy Kuznetsov is trying to set up as the offensive focal point, that's not good enough.
Too many penalties
Washington gave up six power play opportunities. That's far too many. Granted, the Ovechkin slash may have been the weakest slash ever, but penalties have been a problem for the Caps all season and it continued on Sunday.
Let's get this out of the way, the referees don't have it out for Washington. Can we have a grown-up discussion about this? "But they like the Penguins more." Washington has taken more minor penalties than any team in the NHL so even if neutral referees in a professional sports league were actively trying to help one team over the other (which they weren't), then what's the excuse for the other 52 games?
This team takes too many penalties and they desperately need to cut back on that. No, Pittsburgh did not score on any of their six opportunities, but that's 12 minutes of a 60-minute game in which the Caps don't have their top offensive players on the ice.
"I think we've got to do better job to don't make so many penalties because it's not easy to play PK all the time," Kuznetsov said. "Maybe they don't score, but they get momentum, you know?"
Turning point
Washington was the better team for the first 10 minutes of the game and Eller cashed in to make it 1-0, but Lafferty scored just 68 seconds later to tie it.
Nicklas Backstrom had the puck poked away in the neutral zone creating a counter-attack for the Penguins. Lafferty pounced on the loose puck and fired a shot from the top of the circle. Samsonov went to the butterfly, but Lafferty shot high, beating him over the blocker-side.
The goal completely shifted the momentum in Pittsburgh's favor after a strong start for Washington.
Play of the game
Samsonov did not seem to get much help in front of the net and was called upon to make a number of great saves in the crease including these three in the second period.
an outstanding flurry of saves by Samsonov 👏 pic.twitter.com/SW6XZyY61m
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) February 2, 2020
Stat of the game
Tom Wilson brought the boom.
Tom Wilson recorded a career high 13 hits against Pittsburgh. Wilson ranks tied for fourth in the NHL with 185 hits this season.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 2, 2020
Quote of the game
Kuznetsov does not like afternoon games. When asked if this game was a reminder of the importance of playing a full 60-minute game, Kuznetsov said:
"That's what happens sometimes when you play 12:30, you know? It's one of the worst time you can play against especially this type of team. You've been waiting for these type of games and then you've got to play 12:30."
Bad news, Kuzy. The Caps have four afternoon games left on the schedule, three of which are against the Penguins.
Fan predictions
\Goalie fight!
— ktrestorehope (@ktrestorehope) February 2, 2020
Ovechkin/Crosby fight
— Rob Smith (@robsmith46) February 2, 2020
Unfortunately not. How fun would this have been?
Fans on Twitter overreact to the result.
— Nathan (@NathanSprenger) February 2, 2020
Well, that was given.
The game will end before the Super Bowl begins.
— Rich DubroffMLB (@RichDubroffMLB) February 2, 2020
I finished this story at about 5. Now it's time to eat as many unhealthy things as possible because it doesn't count on Super Bowl Sunday, right?
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