Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
The Washington Capitals fell to the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 5-0 in a Black Friday matinee at Capital One Arena, ending their five-game win streak. The loss dropped the Capitals’ record to 10-5-2 and 22 points on the season. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 30 saves in the loss.
The Lineup
Alex Ovechkin —Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano — Evgeny Kuznetsov — T.J. Oshie
Aliaksei Protas — Connor McMichael — Anthony Mantha
Beck Malenstyn — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Rasmus Sandin — John Carlson
Joel Edmundson — Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratches: Right-wing Matthew Phillips, center Hendrix Lapierre, and defenseman Lucas Johansen
Injuries: Defenseman Martin Fehervary (lower body), center Nicklas Backstrom (hip), and left-wing Max Pacioretty (Achilles)
First Period
The Oilers would get on the board first with a goal from left-wing Evander Kane at the 14:10 mark.
Kane opens the game 👊 pic.twitter.com/g6ca0UrRzp
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 24, 2023
Center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would give Edmonton a 2-0 lead with 4:36 left in the opening stanza.
Nuge hand-eye coordination off the charts 📈 pic.twitter.com/siSMbEdK4m
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 24, 2023
Quick Stats
SOG: 21-6 Oilers
Face-Off Win %: 75% (Oilers), 25% (Capitals)
Hits: 12-8 Capitals
Second Period
The Oilers would go up 3-0 with a power-play goal from defenseman Evan Bouchard 3:44 into the second frame.
Bouch blasts it 🚀 pic.twitter.com/2Le2RC9obq
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 24, 2023
Center Leon Draisaitl would give Edmonton a comfortable 4-0 lead on a man advantage at the 4:48 mark.
Leon from Connor on the power play 🤩 pic.twitter.com/TMG7tLbJg8
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 24, 2023
Nearly midway through the period, the Capitals announced that Oshie would not return after sustaining an upper-body injury from a hit by Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm.
T.J. Oshie has gone to the locker room after taking a hit from Ekholm pic.twitter.com/uVAGqQRJ5A
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 24, 2023
Draisaitl would pot his second of the game on another power-play opportunity for the Oilers with less than two minutes left.
Leo cleans it up 🧼 pic.twitter.com/J508mMi0q5
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 24, 2023
Quick Stats
Total SOG: 30-17 Oilers
Face-Off Win %: 64% (Oilers), 35% (Capitals)
Total Hits: 16-10 Capitals
Third Period
The final frame would go scoreless for a 5-0 shutout victory for Edmonton.
Quick Stats
Total SOG: 35-25 Oilers
Face-Off Win %: 56% (Oilers), 43% (Capitals)
Total Hits: 21-12 Capitals
The Capitals start a five-game West Coast road trip on Monday, visiting the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. Monumental Sports Network will have the coverage beginning at 10:30 PM ET.
By Della Young
The affects of Tryptophan in full view
Yeesh. Oilers were due for a win and we were due for a clunker, but…
This game did seem to have “trap” written all over it. We’ve been on a strong run, playing a matinee the day after Thanksgiving, right before leaving on an extended road trip (I think they’re flying out tonight) and against a “bad” team.
Walton said they were flying out immediately after the game. I too was saying ‘trap’ to friends before the game.
Uh-uh. Get at least a penalty, maybe ejection, possibly a suspension. That would really help the Caps.
Really disappointed someone didn’t try to send a message on the Oshie hit, legal hit, but a message would have been good.
And just what message wereyu going to send? that this team is a bunch of p*ss&es and can not take a legal hit? There was nothing to do except accept that oshieran into the man and got crunched between him and McMichael. NO ones fault and no one did anything wrong. You drop the glove n an illegalhit ont one whre your own player may be to blame!
Actually as someone who encourages fighting and physical play, I’m proud of the Caps for excising. It was an accident, everyone knew. You save that chit for deliberate runs.
You got beat by …..Edmonton!!! They could beat anyone!!
In the words of great theologian Denny Lemieux from SLAPSHOT…”…you feel shame!”
Expected that. Probably has a concussion and will be out at least 10 days. does this start the injury bug this year for Oshie?
I wonder if we have kids in ahl that can play 15-20 games in a row without needing insurance ? I guess they couldn;t get all the goal production 77 is offering… no wait, 1 goal?
My guess is that Oshie goes to IR. I originally figured that Lappy would be sent back to Hershey to make room for Fehervary who’s nearly ready. But now we probably don’t need to send anyone down to cut the roster size.
Wonder if AA made the trip. Bears at home this weekend (College Night and David A. Smith Printing Team Photo Night/Team Autograph Night) but not as easy to get to California so I would think any call-up would probably have to miss the Sunday 3pm game.
Heart-attack OT win WED before Thanksgiving + Heavy-duty Thanksgiving Turkey and Booze Party THURS w Tom Wilson host + Family distractions + Early wakeup and early start-time + Talented, hungry West Coast NHL team in town on a losing streak = Biggest Caps Stinker of the season. Made me barf out all my holiday overeatings. Sharks will JAWS the bejeezus out of the Caps on Monday if they show up UNREADY as all hell, like today. Does embarrassssing have 2 or 3 Esses in it?
I won’t get bent out of shape over this loss, it is the day after a holiday in which the players were off. I think everyone gets a pass and we move on.
Guys, Oshie did not look good at all after that hit. He may have a broken collar bone and or be concussed. That is the type of sneaky little hit that ends careers. His posture looked really weird like he was having a hard time moving his neck.
Is anyone else asking the question why not put Carlson on wing and put Oshie on D? Carlson is worthless on defense for the most part.
Lindgren was the only Capital who actually showed up tonight. I will not hold 3 of the 5 goals against him.
This game is just one of those games you say “it happened, and move on”.
Manth’s puck to the head seemed to of helped him.
Sign Kuzy up
thankfully we made changes to the powerplay from last year’s middle of the pack group :).
Lol. 😂
why do they consistently carry the puck to the red line on the PP and turn around and throw it all the way back to their own goalie? Everytime.
Oshie injured? That would be new
Oh look an over the hill Cap injured. Who would have thought. Well the fans like him so who cares if we win. I see a caps powerplay in 115 years with Oshie/OV and Backie still at it… and still 32 in the league unless there is an expansion team.
maybe if muller stopped talking into his sleave like he was moving Joe Biden and started focusing on changing up the PP since we talked about in July, we might win a few more games…. and while we are at it, let’s move on from Kemper.
Sounds like Oshie was not the only Caps casualty. There was a report that Alexeyev fell awkwardly on his shoulder and did not return after that. (I know he’s had shoulder issues in the past.)
Walton said that AA went straight down the tunnel.
That could actually help Caps. I’m not marginalizing the injury, but with Fehervary definitely returning next game, putting AA on IR would prevent them from having to place he or Johansen on waivers?
According to the Shift Chart report on NHL, Milano didn’t play after the 37th minute. Is that so? Wasn’t paying attention to such details by that point in the game… Any idea why, if so?
Not that this is much consolation, but the Canes, who are immediately below the Caps in the standings, had an even worse day than the Caps. They lost 8-2 and their goalie, Antti Raanta had a save percentage of under .500. Tampa Bay has only about 15 shots on goal or so. Surprised they didn’t pull Raanta at some point since it’s clear that it wasn’t his day.
Just finished watching it. Canes wanted to fight but were just not on their game. Coop postgame pointed to how few high danger chances the Canes had. Poor Raanta had 0.417 S% but not all were his fault. Tampa had 14 SOG and converted 4 of 5 powerplays. Point had a hat trick, Kuch had 2 goals and 4 assists a team record. Canes just weren’t the Canes I expected to see, kind of like the Caps earlier. Just not ready to play.
First things first,Oshie isn’t a rookie,the first thing you learn is keep your head up & don’t “ADMIRE “ your pass!!
Second look at fact that no one seemed concerned with “revenge “! Players know when you defend a cheap shot & that wasn’t one! Furthest thing from Oilers fan but nothing dirty about it.
As soon as the Oilers started buzzing in the Caps’ zone in the first, I knew we were in trouble. They were humming, we were absent. I just didn’t think we had nothing to put up against them… Let’s see if lessons are learned, in this road trip. We still have a lot of things to work on.
At this point it really looks like Ovi, Carlson, TvR, and Dowd are the only old guys who can still perform. Backstrom has the hips of an 80yo and Oshie’s physical brand of hockey just gets him hurt more often than not. I get this hit wasn’t his fault, but the fact is his body can’t keep taking this level of punishment. Oshie can maybe still be good if they put him on the third line. Mantha should be playing the 2nd line at this point. Jensen just isn’t good, and Kuzy looks checked out. I don’t think they’re gonna move on from Oshie during the season, but Jensen needs to be on the trade block, and I think it’s best for both sides if Kuz get’s traded. He needs a fresh start and the team needs to invest in its young talent. I’ll always appreciate everything he’s done for this franchise, but unless he completely turns it around, I’d say it’s time.
I was just thinking to myself about Kuzy. I know he had been playing while ill for a couple of games, now he’s just back after illness, have to cut him some slack. But… he’s just not generating chances, not driving play enough. It’s not like he’s not trying. And I can’t really remember any hiccups/turnovers on his part lately, that resulted in pucks in the back of our net (like many a time in seasons past). But he’s just not cutting it. Quite concerning…