Capitals left wing Conor Sheary’s goal near the mid-point of the 2nd period on Wednesday made the Capitals 2022-23 season opener a one-goal game. Unfortunately for the Capitals, his goal would close-out the Capitals scoring for the night.
Sheary, who finished the night with a goal on two shots, three hits and a blocked shot, was fed the puck on an odd-man rush late in the middle frame. His shot 5-holed Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark and got the Capital One Arena faithful back into the game.
2-3 #ALLCAPS sheary. pic.twitter.com/nne2jypPhv
— Capitals Replays (@capsreplays) October 13, 2022
Sheary finished his 2021-22 campaign with 19 goals and 24 assists in 71 games played for the Capitals. Making $1,500,000 a season, Sheary was arguably the Capitals best value, offensively, last season.
As for last night, he wasn’t too high on the moment, though, saying that falling behind early didn’t do them any favors.
“I think in the first period they were able to score on the power play, get a lead, and kind of play with it the whole game,” he said after Washington’s 5-2 loss. “I think it’s hard to play from behind sometimes, but I think most importantly we have to up our compete.”
Sheary added that it felt like Boston just put in a little more effort than they did, especially in the game’s opening minutes. It was time for that all too familiar wake-up call.
“I think we got outworked a little bit in the first,” he said. “We knew that in this locker room, and once we upped that a little bit we were able to make it a one goal game going into the third, giving ourselves a chance and weren’t able to pull it out.”
Head coach Peter Laviolette echoed Conor’s sentiments, saying there was just something missing from their efforts on the ice.
“There was some disconnect, cause at times, not the power play but just us in general, we were disjointed it seemed for the first half of the game,” he said. “And when you wanted a puck to be there it wasn’t. We weren’t on the mark with the pass or we weren’t on the mark with positioning. We got outnumbered in the battle, whatever it might be it wasn’t clicking. We weren’t in synch.”
The Capitals get right back to work tonight when they face the Maple Leafs in Toronto. Puck drop is set for 7:30 PM.
By Jordan Bondurant
