The Washington Capitals started their season long six-game road trip with a 3-0 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena after defeating the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 6-4 on Monday night at home. The loss kept the Capitals three points within the New York Islanders for the top spot in the Metro and gave them a two-point advantage over the Blue Jackets for second. Goaltender Braden Holtby was excellent and made 29 saves in the loss, keeping the score from getting worse for the Capitals.
Capitals Lines at Blue Jackets
#Caps‘ lines vs. CBJ:
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly
18-Stephenson, 26-Dowd, 25-Smith-Pelly6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 29-DjoosHoltby vs. Bobrovsky. #CapsJackets
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) February 12, 2019
The Capitals made no line changes from their 6-4 win over the Kings on Monday night with the exception of Holtby starting after they went with goaltender Pheonix Copley against Los Angeles.
First Period
The Blue Jackets led 11-4 in shots, 7-4 in hits, and 4-2 in takeaways after one period of play. They had one giveaway while the Capitals had three and won 60% of the draws. Columbus went 0-for-2 on the man advantage.
Each team blocked four shots.
Second Period
Forward Anthony Duclair opened the scoring calling his own number on a 3-on-1 rush and beating Holtby to the low left pad after the Capitals made a bad line change 6:32 into the period.
The Capitals led 12-6 in blocked shots after 40 minutes.
The Blue Jackets led 24-7 in shots, including 13-3 in the middle frame, 10-8 in hits, and 8-3 in takeaways after two periods of play. They had three giveaways while the Capitals had four and won 68% of the faceoffs in the first two periods. They were 0-for-3 on the man advantage through the second.
Third Period
Forward Nick Foligno made it 2-0 with 3:47 left on a give-and-go with defenseman Seth Jones, going top corner on Holtby.
Forward Artemi Panarin scored an empty netter from long range with 9.9 seconds left to make it 3-0.
The Capitals led 13-8 in third-period shots and 13-10 in blocked shots. They went 0-for-1 on the power play.
The Blue Jackets led 32-20 in shots, 15-14 in hits, and 9-5 in takeaways. They had six giveaways while the Capitals had eight and won 65% of the faceoffs. They were 0-for-4 on the man advantage.
Each team posted six shots in the final frame.
The Capitals head out west to face the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night at SAP Center. Action from San Jose can be seen on NBC Sports Washington beginning at 10:30 PM Eastern.
By Harrison Brown