It’s a funny thing, luck — Some people will win the lottery two or three times in one lifetime. And other people will be innocently walking down below of a building and have a grand piano accidentally dropped on top of their heads.
This season, the Caps are the piano’s main target. They’re doing their best to avoid being squashed by it, but on some nights like last night against the Carolina Hurricanes — the piano wins.
Yes, Lady Luck has not been kind to the Caps this season — There’s all of the injuries, for starters. And now their leading goal scorer (by nearly 20 goals!) is out of the lineup indefinitely, as Alex Ovechkin has had to take a leave of absence from the team for “family, health-related reasons” … The Caps haven’t officially said specifically what it is that has caused Ovechkin to leave the team, but there’s multiple reports out of Russian news outlets that he is flying back to Russia as his dad has been “urgently hospitalized” there.
Obviously, it goes without saying, but hockey absolutely comes second to family, and we don’t care nearly as much about the Caps’ playoff chances as we do about the health of Ovi’s father. We’re wishing only the best for the Ovechkin family.
So, there’s all of that, and then there was also the game on Tuesday night between the Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes — a game which – it was pretty obvious – the Caps were trying very hard to win both for their playoff chances and – of course – for their beloved captain.
The Caps played a good game… but like I said: Lady Luck can be a b*tch.
It was just one of those nights where everything went wrong for the Caps: They scored two beautiful skill goals, but couldn’t find the third as they again hit multiple posts/crossbars, had pucks laying on the goal line but not finding their way in, a quick whistle or two benefit Canes goaltender Frederik Andersen, etc. etc. etc.
Of course, the Caps actually did get a third goal depending on who you ask, but unfortunately if you ask the ref, then they did not. And super unfortunately, the ref’s opinion is the only one that matters in this case. It was called back for “goaltender interference” after a Challenge issued by Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour.
That would-be goal would have tied the game in the 3rd period, and likely would have obtained an important standings point for the Caps (and maybe two, depending on how overtime/the shootout would have gone) … Unfortunately, Brind’Amour felt confident to challenge what was – at best – a 50/50 call late in the 3rd period of what would’ve been a tied hockey game, he felt confident taking that risk and maybe winding up with a delay of game penalty because of it, because he had probably been paying attention to the Caps’ Ovechkin-less power play throughout the course of the night, and – as such – he saw no real risk in winding up with a penalty. Good times.
The bad luck continued for the Caps on the defensive end, with all three of the Canes’ goals on the night coming on pucks that probably shouldn’t have found their way into the net.
The Canes really couldn’t generate much against the Caps’ defense, but it didn’t matter, as they got one goal off of a seeing-eye wrist shot from the blue line that found its way through about 700 sticks and feet, they got another goal off of another non-dangerous shot from the blue line that hit Paul Stastny somewhere on his rear end when he wasn’t even looking for it and that somehow bounced past everyone just perfectly and into the Caps’ net, and then they got what would eventually become the game-winning goal on the power play, off of another deflection.
So ultimately, the Caps played well enough to win – outshooting the Hurricanes by a 36-30 count – but it was another two standings points left on the table.
Scoring for the Caps was as follows:
- TJ Oshie got the Caps on the board with less than a minute to go in the 1st period, converting a beautiful feed from Joe Snively to beat Andersen. There was about to be a penalty on the play if Oshie hadn’t scored, as Osh had beaten his man (Sebastian Aho) to the net to create the odd-man chance. Aho hauled Oshie down from behind to try to prevent him from scoring, but Osh beat Andersen anyway with a neat conversion as Oshie was falling down. Assists to Snively & Dmitry Orlov.
- For the Caps’ second goal, it was another odd-man break with Joe Snively being a part of it once again, but this time Snively kept the puck himself and fired it home past Andersen. Snively was really, really good in this game, his first since being recalled from AHL Hershey due to the Ovechkin leave of absence. And honestly, the way Snively was playing and creating out there, he probably should’ve been in Washington this entire time. He got more done in two periods tonight than Anthony Mantha has done in the last two months. What a time to be alive. Anyway. Assist to Trevor van Riemsdyk.
The Caps looked fast and were creating tons of scoring chances for themselves all game long. They just need to start burying more of them.
The Caps’ next game is a very large one, Thursday night against the Florida Panthers who – thankfully – got fed their lunch at the hands of the St. Louis Blues while the Caps were losing to the Hurricanes, so they didn’t gain any points on the Caps in the wildcard standings.
It’ll be a very important two points on the line on Thursday night, to say the least.
