Photo: X/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals gave up a 2-o lead and fell to the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2 Friday night at PNC Arena in Raleigh. The loss drops the Capitals record to 36-30-10 (82 points) on the season. The Capitals have now lost five straight games.
Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring less than four minutes into the opening stanza with his 850th career goal. Ovechkin added his 29th goal of the season with less than a minute to play in the period to make it 2-0 at the first intermission, even though the Hurricanes led in five-on-five shot attempts, 26-9 after 20 minutes of play.
Jake Guentzel got the Canes on the board with his 26th goal of the season at 14:30 of the middle frame for a 2-1 Capitals lead at the second break. The Hurricanes led in five-on-five shot attempts a staggering 53-16 after two periods of play.
The Hurricanes tied the game a little over midway through the final frame on a power play goal from Martin Necas and took their first lead of the night with a power play goal from Sebastian Aho with less than two minutes left in regulation. The Canes added an empty net goal from Jake Guentzel for the 4-2 win. The Hurricanes led in five-on-five shot attempts, 73-26 for the game.
LINEUP
Darcy Kuemper (13-13-3, 3.32 GAA, .888 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the visiting Capitals. Pyotr Kochetkov (20-13-4, 2.42 GAA, .902 sv%) got the start in goal for the Hurricanes. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Mike Sgarbossa —Connor McMichael — Aliaksei Protas
Max Pacioretty — Hendrix Lapierre — Sonny Milano
Beck Malenstyn — Nic Dowd — Ivan Miroshnichenko
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: Forward T.J. Oshie (injury – undisclosed), forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel, defenseman Vinny Iorio, forward Matthew Phillips, goaltender Hunter Shepard, defenseman Ethan Bear (NHLPA players assistance program) and forward Nicklas Backstrom (hip).
1ST PERIOD
The Capitals opened the scoring early in the first frame on a rebound tally by Alex Ovechkin (28) at 3:31 of the opening stanza. Dylan Strome (37) and Trevor van Riemadyk (12) had the helpers. It was Ovechkin’s 850th goal of his career.
850 GOALS FOR ALEX OVECHKIN 👀
(🎥: @BR_OpenIce) pic.twitter.com/UgiYoGe0uv
— BarDown (@BarDown) April 5, 2024
The Capitals made it 2-0 with less than a minute to play in the period on Alex Ovechkin’s (29) second goal of the game. John Carlson (40) and Dylan Strome (38) had the assists.
When you’re hot, you’re hot.
Or in Ovi’s case … just being Ovi. pic.twitter.com/cyOJSOtBNU— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 5, 2024
The Capitals held the 2-0 lead into the first intermission. The Hurricanes led in five-on-five shot attempts, 25-9 in the first 20 minutes.
2ND PERIOD
Jake Guentzel got the Canes on the board with his 26th goal of the season at 14:30 of the middle frame.
Jake Guentzel scoring goals for the Carolina Hurricanes doesn’t get old pic.twitter.com/A28oxgbr4C
— x – Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) April 6, 2024
And that was it for the second period. The Canes led in five-on-five shot attempts 53-16 after two periods of play.
3RD PERIOD
Martin Necas tied the game on the power play with 8:20 left in the final frame.
Marty in the clutch! pic.twitter.com/8TIBSi1pW7
— x – Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) April 6, 2024
The Hurricanes took their first lead of the night with a power play goal from Sebastian Aho at 18:09 to make it 3-2.
Sebastian Aho is ELITE 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/cQ4BrDgbRG
— x – Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) April 6, 2024
The Canes added an empty net goal from Jake Guentzel for the 4-2 final. The Hurricanes led in five-on-five shot attempts, 73-26 for the game.
SHAVINGS (From Capitals PR)
- Ovechkin (49g-54a–103p in 90 GP) is the leading point scorer against the Hurricanes among active players.
- Ovechkin is now two goals shy of his 18th career 30-goal season. Should he reach the 30-goal mark, Ovechkin would pass former Capital Mike Gartner for the most 30-goal seasons in NHL history.
- Trevor van Riemsdyk earned the secondary assist on Ovechkin’s goal. It marks van Riemsdyk’s 100th career assist. Forty-six of van Riemsdyk’s 100 career assists have come with Washington.
- With his game-opening goal tonight against Carolina, Alex Ovechkin has become the only player in NHL history to score 850 goals with one franchise. Ovechkin has now scored 20 goals in his last 30 games.
Shoot Sonny M!
ahhh, the missing comma…
While it didn’t work out in the end, it was a smart move by Carbery to start Lindgren in net and have him wear Keumper’s jersey 🤪
I also liked the KimRB Memorial Trivia Question
They didnt rally, the refs gave them the game 😡
no, the Caps LOST the game.
outshot 45-16….yea, that sounds like the refs really took it to the Caps. guess the refs took half those shots?
Carbery is terrible. Worst caps coach of all time. Switch your system to a neutral zone ffs
Yeah, okay.
At one point in the second period it was 30-9 for shots on goal :)!!! What a team. Do Caps goalies get danger pay?
The Caps simply have no players capable of changing the character of a game. If the other team decides it wants to play tough, desperate hockey, we lose. It’s not our “fault” or the coach’s either. Carolina and Pittsburgh both decided they really needed to win and they did. With the exception of Charlie, the Caps have way to stop them. Maybe McMichael, or Sonny or LaPierre or Ivan will develop into a “game changing” player, they are not there yet.
I would like to see a little more fire out of Carbs in his postgame, but what I would like to see and hear even more are plans he intends to make to make the team better. If I had to sum up his postgame every time it would be a shrug of the shoulders. Don’t just agree with reporters that things sucked, tell us how you plan on fixing it.
I suspect he knows the remedy – we need better players! That is not the sort of thing you say in a press conference. In watching the Red Wings last night it was noted that they have 8 players with 40 or more points. We have 3 and are not likely to have more. These other teams chasing us simply have better players. I think that is the bottom line.
And he actually says it after some games where the Caps were bulldozed by some high-rolling team like Edmonton or Toronto. He usually goes something like, “Oh, they’ve got really good, world-class players that can … this or that. Such talent”. Has been happening all throughout the year, so you know he really is thinking that. 😏
Still a good year!
Blades of glory
Ovi’s now one goal shy of 30, not two, as it says in the Shavings section. He’s got 29 now, and has scored 21 in his last 30 games, not 20.
As for the game itself, the Caps shouldn’t have been trying to nurse the lead as much as they did. Better to have gone on the attack more often, and kept the Canes from controlling play that much. I know the Caps are supposed to be good at these one-goal games or whatever tight games, but at some point it becomes anti-hockey, and while it worked a couple of times for them before, someone up there seems to have meted out a punishment. And perhaps it’s someone bigger than the refs (or Toronto, as was the case in some games). You have to stay true to the game more than just cowardly protecting a two- or one-goal lead. IMHO.
This season is proving the old axiom that Regression (as in Regression to the Mean) is a bitch. And being a bitch in the worst possible way to both the Capitals and the Flyers. Earlier in the season, the Analytics models were saying that the Flyers and Capitals were both worse teams than their records, in the Caps’ case, as a high negative goal differential. They were computing that the Pens would beat out Philly, Washington, and, for that matter, the NY Islanders. Now here we are. The Flyers and Caps can’t buy a win. While Pittsburgh is uber uber hot, even when playing good teams. And this regression is happening in the most excruciating fashion for Capitals and Flyers fans, both. It’s easier to accept missing the playoffs by being consistently bad throughout the year. But harder to accept when they looked “safely” in but then the bottom falls out at the very end. This season it seems that Regression is not only a bitch, but is wearing Black and Gold for good measure.
Good stuff, the Pens just beat the bolts… we settling back down into a better draft position which is where we need to be . No point going out 4 straight in first round anyway.
Pits played like they were fighting for a playoff spot (which they are) and Bolts played like they have already clinched a playoff spot (which they have).
I admit I am surprised that the Pits managed to turn their bad depressed attitude around so quickly.