The Washington Capitals were without winger T.J. Oshie, defenseman Martin Fehervary, center Nic Dowd, defenseman Nick Jensen and winger Sonny Milano, all of whom are written into the lineup in ink when healthy.
Washington
Shorthanded Capitals keep pushing, start back-to-back with dominant win
None of that mattered to the Capitals, who matched their season high with six goals to beat the Senators, 6-3. They were led by a three-point game from forward Aliaksei Protas, the first multi-goal game of center Hendrix Lapierre’s career and a power-play tally by winger Max Pacioretty that ended a 17-game goal drought.
With the win, its fourth in five games, Washington moved into fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, four points back of the third-place Philadelphia Flyers with two games in hand.
“Through this stretch, I think you’re seeing a lot more goals because we’re playing a lot better,” defenseman John Carlson said. “We’re doing the right things and going to the right spots. You get rewarded for that. … If we want to get in this thing, like we do, there’s a lot of teams hunting that down. We don’t have time to think about it.”
Defense and goaltending seemed to be optional Monday night. Washington netminder Darcy Kuemper made 18 saves on 21 shots; Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo combined to stop 14 of 20 shots for Ottawa.
The Capitals jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first 8:30, getting goals from Protas, who completed a backhand finish on a two-on-one with winger Anthony Mantha, and Carlson, who scored on a quick-trigger wrist shot after center Dylan Strome won a faceoff on the power play.
Carlson’s goal came seconds after he was honored for becoming Washington’s franchise leader in games played by a defenseman at 984, eclipsing Calle Johansson.
“It was a cool little moment, especially after all that,” Carlson said. “It was just one of those things you can’t make up. Good things happen sometimes.”
But the lead evaporated even quicker than it was built: Ottawa’s Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto scored less than three minutes apart to bring the score level with 12:41 left in the period.
Pacioretty’s goal, his second of the season and first since Jan. 11, gave Washington the lead back with 1:27 left in the period. Winger Beck Malenstyn scored just 14 seconds later to double the lead heading into the first intermission.
“I thought it was going to settle in from that point [at 2-2] because it gets sort of back to level, but we answered right there with those two late in the first period and took control of that game,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said. “And still, there was a few instances where it almost went to 4-3 where it felt like we might be in something where it’s going to go back and forth, but our guys did a good job.”
The two-goal cushion was needed after Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk cut the Capitals’ lead in half 1:27 into the second period. That was as close as Ottawa came the rest of the way.
Lapierre, whom the Capitals recalled from the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears on Friday, scored the first of his two goals just 31 seconds after Tkachuk’s tally, capitalizing on a rebound at the far post. For his second goal, which stretched the Capitals’ lead to three, Lapierre finished a give-and-go with Mantha at 10:55 for a highlight-reel goal to pair with his workmanlike first tally.
With both teams on the front end of a back-to-back — the Capitals visit the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, while the Senators will play in Nashville — the third period was a grind, standing in stark contrast to the first 40 minutes. The teams combined for just 10 shots on goal as they glided toward the finish line.
Lapierre, who was last with the Capitals when they were in the midst of an ugly road trip through the Central Division that began a six-game losing streak, feels the difference a month later.
“We played a really mature and composed third period,” he said. “It’s not easy to be up by three and have to manage all that. But this group, they’ve been there, right? They know what it is, and they want to get there. You can definitely feel it in the air.”
Here’s what else to know about the Capitals’ win:
Oshie is considered “week-to-week” with an upper-body injury; he left Thursday’s win at Tampa Bay after going down without contact in the third period. Jensen was a game-time decision with a lower-body injury and did not play. Milano was a late scratch with an illness.
Fehervary (lower body, week-to-week) and Dowd (upper body, day-to-day) skated Monday morning in noncontact jerseys. Carbery said he would “like to see them potentially, maybe” join the Capitals for practice Thursday, their next full skate following Tuesday’s game in Detroit and a day off Wednesday.
Winger Ivan Miroshnichenko was recalled from Hershey to give the Capitals an extra forward for the back-to-back but was a healthy scratch against the Senators. To make room on the roster, Oshie was placed on injured reserve.
Washington
June starts in D.C. as May ended, with a day of delight
The 81 degrees was a temperate sort of temperature, marking a day that seemed content to grant to barbecues to possess the undisputed right to sizzle, and to confine to food preparation any noticeable steaminess.
Saturday seemed a dry day in the most obvious sense, meaning that it did not rain, at least not through early evening. In the seeming absence of showers, or of their apparent likelihood, Saturday departed from a tradition established in May. Last month it rained on every Saturday, and on a couple of them it rained a lot.
But by early evening, D.C.’s first Saturday in June seemed to revoke the weekly permits for rain and clouds. Moreover, to the untrained eye, Saturday gave scarcely a sign that it would allow precipitation at night.
Clouds were indeed there on Saturday, but they seemed to be high clouds, perhaps five miles up, and thin, almost gauzy, as if made of some fragile fabric with strands that had been carefully teased apart.
Humidity, the unwelcome guest on many a warm day in Washington, seemed to make itself scarce. Such quantities as dew points and heat indexes often are cited as numerical explanations of warm weather discomfort. Although these quantities could be computed Saturday, they could readily be factored out of the comfort equation.
For example, at 2 p.m., with the mercury at 80 degrees, the dew point was recorded at more than 30 degrees below that. It was an almost absurdly low 49 degrees. In practice, it meant that no way existed to wring raindrops out of the uncharacteristically dry air.
East is east, and west is west, it is often said. But on Saturday, Washington seemed to show similarities to conditions often experienced near the other side of the continent. It seemed to display an uncommonly strong resemblance to sections of Southern California, at least in terms of meteorology.
In all of this, Saturday seemed to show its kinship with Friday, a day similar in so many ways. With a high temperature in the 70s, Friday was often described as an example of the sort of weather that should be summoned to the Washington area more often.
Washington
QB Sam Howell Admits ‘I Was a Little Too Aggressive’ With Washington Commanders
Quarterback Sam Howell filled his backup role as best he could while learning behind Washington Commanders quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke.
At the end of the Commanders’ 2022 season he got his first start against the Dallas Cowboys and immediately showed flashes of the talent that once had him projected to be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft.
READ MORE: Years Later Trent Williams Trade Still Haunts Washington
While Washington got Howell in the fifth round and waited 16 regular season games before giving him his first shot, the quarterback eventually started all 17 games in a four-win 2023 campaign that saw Howell sacked a league-high 65 times while throwing 21 interceptions.
“I think I could play some smarter ball. I think there were times where we were down big in some games, I was a little too aggressive just trying to make something happen trying to get us back in the game,” Howell said according to Jon Alfano of All Seahawks. “The turnovers are just way too high for what I wanted and what the team needed.”
“In this league to be able to play, you’ve got to compete and that’s what I’m willing to do, no matter what the situation is, no matter who the starter is.”
– Sam Howell, Seattle Seahawks Quarterback
It’s classic Howell to not let the blame land anywhere else but himself, but those who watched the Commanders closely last year know that it’s not all on the young quarterback. Perhaps more blame is owed to the coaching staff that has since departed, and then there’s some that needs to live with the roster around him.
Most of us here witnessing the launch of quarterback Jayden Daniels’ career still believe there’s a future NFL starter waiting in the wings in the Pacific Northwest. Even if Howell has to sit behind yet another more veteran quarterback while he waits for his next chance.
“In this league to be able to play, you’ve got to compete and that’s what I’m willing to do, no matter what the situation is, no matter who the starter is. If I’m the starter, I’m coming to compete every single day,” Howell told reporters Thursday . “Geno has been great. I’ve learned a lot from Geno and he’s a great player. I have a lot of respect for him and everything he’s been through in his career.”
Smith is almost the perfect quarterback to take a cast-out starter under his wing because he knows a thing or two about that situation. Even though Smith’s fall came from much higher heights, and is considered to be more about him than Howell’s departure from Washington is.
READ MORE: Logan Paulsen’s Early Takeaways from Quarterback Jayden Daniels
After being drafted No. 2 overall in the 2013 NFL Draft out of West Virginia, Smith spent four seasons with the New York Jets before eventually heading to the New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers, and finally the Seattle Seahawks where he got his second chance at being a franchise quarterback.
Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.
Washington
Man slain, teen and second man wounded in Anacostia, police say
The juvenile female who was wounded was described by Carew as an older teenager.
No name was available for the man who was fatally wounded. The latest report on the two who were wounded indicated that both were conscious and breathing when taken to a hospital.
No information was immediately available about suspects or motive in the gunfire. Any connection between the three who were shot could not be learned immediately.
In another development, the death earlier this year of a man who was shot two years ago is being investigated as a homicide, police said Friday.
Cesar Barrera, 40, was shot May 10, 2022, in the 2500 block of Pomeroy Road SE and died of his wounds on Feb. 7 this year, the police said. An autopsy determined in May that he died of complications from gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, police said.
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