Blues Bounce Capitals, 4-3, For Their First Preseason Loss

Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals fell the St. Louis Blues by a score of 4-3 at Enterprise Center on Friday night for their first loss of the preseason. Goaltender Braden Holtby played the full game, making 21 saves in the loss.

Capitals’ Lines at Blues

Shane Gersich – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Travis Boyd
Carl Hagelin – Lars Eller – Chandler Stephenson
Beck Malenstyn – Nic Dowd – Brendan Leipsic
Liam O’Brien – Michael Sgarbossa – Brian Pinho

Dmitry Orlov – Nick Jensen
Christian Djoos – Jonas Seigenthaler
Martin Fehervary – Tyler Lewington

Braden Holtby
Vitek Vanecek

The Capitals rested most of their regulars as none of their top-six forwards from last season who will be in the opening night lineup played, though they dressed their projected second defensive pairing for Wednesday.

Defenseman Radko Gudas was a late healthy scratch as his wife was in labor. Seigenthaler took his spot on the second-pair with Djoos.

First Period

Kuznetsov picked off a pass at the blue line in the defensive zone and sprang Boyd in the neutral zone. Boyd buried the puck on a wrist shot from the right dot 3:40 into the game.

Early @Tboyd93 Tally Alert! #ALLCAPS #CapsBlues pic.twitter.com/IkFfF554bI

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 28, 2019

Hagelin sniped the puck from the right dot and it deflected off of Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo’s glove to bounce past goaltender Ville Husso to make it 2-0 at 10:11 elapsed time.

.@CarlHagelin wrister is a beauty! #ALLCAPS #CapsBlues pic.twitter.com/jFw47HKrGY

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 28, 2019

Forward Jaden Schwartz cut the lead in half as he redirected a pass from forward Vladimir Tarasenko in the slot and the puck trickled past Holtby with 4:23 to go in the first.

The Capitals led 9-7 in shots, 4-2 in takeaways, and had no giveaways while the Blues had two in the opening frame. They went 0-for-2 on the power-play in the first stanza.

The Blues led 11-2 in hits and won 56% of the draws in the first.

Each team was credited with one blocked shot in the period.

Second Period

Schwartz circled around the offensive zone to feed center Brayden Schenn, who would bury the puck past Holtby to tie the game 1:24 into the period.

Tarasenko slammed in Schwartz’s feed on a two-on-one down the wing to give the Blues a 3-2 lead 23 seconds after the Blues opened the scoring in the second.

Center Tyler Bozak finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Schwartz and Pietrangelo on the power-play with 6:52 left to double the Blues’ lead.

The Capitals went 0-for-4 on the power-play in the first two periods.

The Blues led 18-16 in shots, including 11-7 in the second, 20-3 in hits, and 5-4 in blocked shots after two. They won 56% of the faceoffs and went 1-for-1 on the power-play in the opening 40 minutes.

Each team earned five takeaways and gave the puck away only three times during the first two periods.

Third Period

Forward Chandler Stephenson redirected forward Michael Sgarbossa’s pass from the left dot at the crease to beat Husso to the corner on the power-play to make it 4-3 with 14:56 remaining.

Knock knock!
Who’s there?

Stevie! pic.twitter.com/msiTYsB516

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 28, 2019

The Capitals led 27-25 in shots, including 11-8 in the third, went 0-for-5 on the power-play.

The Blues led 28-8 in hits, 6-5 in takeaways, and 10-6 in blocked shots. They won 53% of the faceoffs, went 1-for-3 on the power-play, and had three giveaways while the Capitals had four.

Each team earned five takeaways.

The Capitals conclude their preseason slate in Raleigh on Sunday, when they will face the Carolina Hurricanes. Action from PNC Arena can be seen on NBC Sports Washington beginning at 1:30 PM ET.