For the third time in as many games in the young season, the Capitals yielded the game’s first two goals and found themselves looking up at a scoreboard deficit on Wednesday night against the Senators in Ottawa. The hole proved to be too much for a Washington team that has yet to play with a lead at any point in its three games this season; the Caps absorbed a 6-1 setback at the hands of the Sens.
In his first game action in nearly nine months, Ottawa’s Josh Norris scored twice to pace the Sens' attack. Norris's first goal since Jan. 21 stood up as the game-winner.
Although the Caps were down a pair of goals in the first, they played a decent first 20 minutes, limiting Ottawa to just six shots on net.
“The first period, I liked our game a lot,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought it was probably our best 20 minutes of the season thus far.”
After the Sens took a 2-0 first-period lead on Vladimir Tarasenko’s goal at 4:28 and Norris’s power-play strike at 12:29, the Caps lit the lamp late in the period. Following a regroup, Dylan Strome gained the Ottawa zone but lost the handle in the slot. Tom Wilson collected the puck and centered for Alex Ovechkin, who wasn’t able to squeeze off a shot from there, but John Carlson alertly stepped up and fired home his first goal of the season from the slot at 18:54 of the first frame.
Carlson’s goal was the first for Washington in an opening period this season, and it sliced the Sens’ lead in half at the time. But not for long.
Ottawa erupted for three goals in the middle period, getting started early on Norris’s second of the night at 1:47. Three minutes later, Artem Zub’s center point drive made it a 4-1 game, and 11 minutes after that, Claude Giroux’s first of the season made it 5-1.
After using his timeout to confer with his staff, Carbery elected to challenge the Giroux goal, alleging that the Sens were offside on the play. A lengthy delay for video review followed, and the NHL’s Situation Room eventually ruled that there was no conclusive evidence that Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk preceded the puck into the zone.
The Caps killed off the resulting bench minor penalty for delay of game, and they went shorthanded once again late in the frame when Wilson and Ottawa’s Mark Kastelic scrapped behind the Washington net; Wilson was assessed an additional minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Washington also had a power play in the second period, and the Caps managed to put four pucks on Ottawa’s Anton Forsberg during those two minutes.
“The second period is sort of a microcosm for how the year is going for this group right now,” says Carbery. “Every mistake we make is ending up in the back of our net.”
Sens blueliner Jake Sanderson made Washington pay for a third-period icing, scoring from the point six seconds after the draw in the Caps’ end at 11:48. Sanderson’s goal closed out the scoring on the night, giving Ottawa its third win in as many games on the team’s current five-game homestand. The Sens have scored at least five goals in each of those three victories.
Carlson’s goal loomed large at the time, cutting the Ottawa lead in half and giving the Caps a chance to pull even if they could manage to get the next one, as they did in Monday’s shootout win over Calgary. But the Sens struck twice before the first television timeout of the second period, and the deficit proved to be too deep.
“I felt like we didn’t have that bad of a first period,” says Strome. “And obviously they get three quick goals in the second.
“I think we’re leaving our [defense] out to dry a little bit with the puck in our own zone. Maybe the forwards aren’t doing a great job of coming back and helping them out. I think we’re leaving [goaltender Darcy Kuemper] out there to dry; we haven’t gotten a lot of shots in all three games. We get outshot 40-20 against Calgary, and we win 3-2 because of Kuemps.”
For Carbery, the Caps aren’t getting enough done and they don’t have enough guys going offensively right now, and that lack of offense – three goals in three games to date – is being exacerbated by too many of Washington’s mistakes ending up in its own net.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who are looking to find their game early in the season and aren’t there yet,” says the Caps’ bench boss. “Usually it’s a few [players], but we have more than you would call ‘normal,’ so we’re trying to find our game. And what’s compounding the issue is that now, when we make a mistake, it’s in the back of the net.
“It’s tough. It’s hard. I don’t think it’s a lack of effort. We’re turning over some pucks that maybe in a different year or a different situation, wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But right now, every time we turn over a puck, it’s going to be a Grade A [scoring chance against]. And we have to learn from that, and we have to correct it. We’re struggling right now, we’re not executing well offensively, we’re not clicking like a well-oiled machine offensively – the power play, finishing chances, 2-on-1s, odd man chances – it’s not clicking.”
Soon after Wednesday night’s loss, the Caps boarded a train for Montreal, where they will conclude their first road trip of the season with a Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada contest against the Canadiens. Between now and then, the Caps will enjoy a scheduled day off on Thursday, and they’ll practice in Montreal on Friday.
“We’re 1-2, but could easily be 0-3,” says Strome. “But the best part about hockey is we’ve got another game coming up on Saturday, in an awesome rink to play in, and I know the guys will be fired up.”
