With grief nonetheless weighing on their shoulders, the Washington Capitals’ third line lastly vented late within the second interval Thursday towards the Florida Panthers. All of them barreled into the crease, determined to attain a purpose and climb again into the sport, however had been met by a wall of opponents.
Washington
Capitals, still without Alex Ovechkin, are outmuscled by Panthers
After the whistle, Capitals veteran T.J. Oshie and Florida’s Ryan Lomberg wrestled to the boards, Oshie holding onto Lomberg’s leg, whereas a melee broke out round them. Oshie lastly emerged from the scrum and exchanged extra phrases with Florida gamers, his face bloodied and the Capital One Enviornment followers chanting his identify.
Oshie and the remainder of his teammates had been nonetheless lacking their captain, Alex Ovechkin, who missed his second straight recreation after the loss of life of his father a day earlier. Because the Capitals mourned that loss, they’d vowed to earn a win for No. 8 — however they discovered solely mounting frustration in a 6-3 defeat.
Washington scored two power-play targets within the remaining seven minutes of the sport to tug inside a purpose, however it wasn’t sufficient to keep away from a 3rd consecutive loss.
“We’re chasing the sport,” Washington Coach Peter Laviolette mentioned. “We have now to do extra. It’s not ok. We have now to have higher execution.”
With six groups sitting inside 5 factors of each other within the Japanese Convention wild card standings, Washington entered the competition desperately in search of some traction — however continued to toil on an evening when it struggled to generate offense and comprise the heavy Panthers, who crowded the web with site visitors and peppered Capitals goaltender Darcy Kuemper (30 saves) with high quality shot makes an attempt from the onset.
Washington (28-23-6) was already struggling to supply offense even with Ovechkin within the lineup — it had been held to 2 targets or much less in seven of its earlier eight video games — and the facility play had produced simply 4 targets on its earlier 40 journeys.
It continued early Thursday because the Capitals failed to supply a shot on purpose on its first three energy performs. It didn’t assist going up towards top-of-the-line penalty kill items within the league — Florida had killed 90.5 % of the penalties it had confronted since Jan. 27 — or that the Capitals had been dealing with one of many league’s finest goaltenders in Sergei Bobrovsky (29 saves).
The Capitals had additionally struggled to comprise photographs from blue line for a second consecutive recreation — Carolina had scored all three of its targets from the purpose in a 3-2 win Tuesday — and Florida took benefit. As Florida (28-24-6) labored the puck low to excessive in the course of the primary interval, a Gustav Forsling snap shot from the left circle bought via site visitors to beat Kuemper for the sport’s first purpose. The Panthers seized a 2-0 lead lower than two minutes into the second interval after Marc Staal beat Keumper with a shot from the purpose.
“We’re sort of stumbling now with out [Ovechkin],” heart Dylan Strome mentioned. “We have to discover a strategy to create extra site visitors in entrance of the web. Groups are doing it to us, and we’ve got to begin doing it again.”
Washington’s fourth line was arguably its finest early, and even when the Capitals earned scoring probabilities, they went wayward. Middle Lars Eller tried to muscle in a point-blank purpose via a crowd with lower than eight minutes left within the second interval, however the puck squirted out and led to a Florida breakaway likelihood. Colin White used a backhand deke to beat Kuemper to make it 3-0. And after Strome had scored to whittle the result in 3-1 later within the interval, Washington got here again with one other rush and shot on purpose — Martin Fehervary had a snap shot blocked — however Florida countered with a 2-on-1 as captain Aleksander Barkov faked a move and deposited a wrister previous Kuemper.
Washington lastly broke its energy play drought when Nicklas Backstrom scored to make it 4-2 with 7:04 remaining. The Capitals had one other energy play with slightly below three minutes left — it pulled Kuemper to create a 6-on-4 benefit — and Evgeny Kuznetsov flipped the puck into the web to trim the deficit to at least one purpose. The Capitals hoped for a miracle within the remaining two minutes — however misplaced management of the puck in its personal zone and Florida’s Anton Lundell completed an empty-netter with 1:21 left.
Because the Capitals hurried out of their locker room afterward to catch their aircraft to Raleigh, N.C., for Saturday’s out of doors Stadium Sequence recreation towards the Carolina Hurricanes, Laviolette looked for solutions on how his staff might snap out of its three-game dropping streak. place to begin: by replicating the ferocity that Oshie introduced within the second interval when he tried to rally his staff with out their captain.
“What are we ready for?” Laviolette requested. “I mentioned it after the second interval: ‘T.J., I cherished it.’ It’s nice. We’re in a playoff mode right here. Extra of that. Give me some extra of that.”
Right here’s what else to know in regards to the Capitals’ loss:
The Capitals held a pregame second of silence for Alex Ovechkin’s father, Mikhail, who died Wednesday on the age of 71. Alex Ovechkin stays away from the staff after touring again to Russia to take care of his household this week and is anticipated to overlook the following a number of video games.
Ahead Tom Wilson and heart Nic Dowd each took half within the Capitals morning skate Thursday morning. Each competed in drills after the skate — Dowd wore a noncontact uniform, whereas Wilson didn’t — taking one other step towards returns from their respective decrease physique accidents.
“Each day proper now could be getting higher,” Wilson mentioned a day earlier. “Simply gotta preserve doing what I am doing and hopefully I get up one morning and feels okay to place within the skate and play a hockey recreation.”
McIlrath makes NHL return
Veteran defenseman Dylan McIlrath was referred to as up from the Capitals’ AHL affiliate in Hershey, Pa., making his first look in an NHL recreation since 2019. The transfer was a reward for the way McIlrath has captained the Bears this season — and at 6-foot-4, 235-pounds, the Capitals provided some heft towards Florida’s heavy lineup.
“It’s unreal,” McIlrath mentioned Thursday. “Being a man that has spent most of his profession within the minors, you by no means know once you’re going to have your final NHL recreation. So I simply attempt to get pleasure from each second within the NHL one of the best I can.”