Caps Suffer Shootout Setback, 4-3

For the second time in as many games, the Caps didn't play to their peak for the first 40 minutes of a contest, yet they were in a position to win a period - namely the third - to win a hockey game. Washington was able to eke out win in that situation on Friday night in Buffalo, but couldn't conjure an encore on Sunday in Pittsburgh, falling 4-3 to the Penguins in a shootout.

Sunday's win was Pittsburgh's first of the season after a pair of lopsided losses in Philadelphia.
"We didn't really have the start we wanted there," says Caps left wing Jakub Vrana. "We expected a frustrated [Pittsburgh] team after the two losses they had, and we needed to be a little bit better there off the start."
Making his first start of the season - and first NHL appearance since March 16, 2019 - Pens goalie Casey DeSmith set aside 20 of 23 shots in the 65 minutes of hockey on Sunday afternoon, and he was perfect in the shootout to claim the victory.
"We just thought it was the best decision for the group for this game," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan of the decision to start DeSmith after Tristan Jarry started both games against the Flyers. "I've had a couple conversations with Tristan. I think it's going to give Tristan an opportunity to reset his mindset, get a couple of workouts with [Mike Buckley], our goalie coach, and I think that will be good for Tristan, and we felt that was the best decision for our team today."
The game started inauspiciously for the Caps when Evan Rodrigues converted a Brian Dumoulin feed just 19 seconds after the opening puck drop, putting Washington down on the scoreboard for the first time in the young season.
Before the first television timeout of the first, the Caps found themselves shorthanded. But they killed the penalty without incident and struck for a pair of goals in the back half of the opening frame.
Seconds after he tried to set up linemate Garnet Hathaway driving the net, Caps center Nic Dowd took a return feed from Hathaway and issued a backhander of his own from the slot. The puck got through DeSmith and just slid past the goal line, evening the contest at 1-1 at 12:04 of the first.

Just over two minutes later, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin notched his first goal of the season. Tom Wilson made an assertive play on the half wall in the Pens' end, stripping defenseman John Marino of the puck and feeding Evgeny Kuznetsov. DeSmith stopped Kuznetsov's wrist shot from in tight, but Ovechkin backhanded the rebound home for the 707th goal of his illustrious NHL career, giving Washington its first lead of the game at 14:24.
Before the end of the first, the Caps got their first power play opportunity since Thursday's opener in Buffalo, ending a string of seven straight opposition power plays since. Presented with a chance to make it a 3-1 game, the extra-man unit looked rusty and failed to threaten.
Early in the second, the Pens pulled even on a weird goal that some still believe never went in the net. Caps goaltender Ilya Samsonov was caught out of position behind the Washington cage, and when Pittsburgh's Teddy Blueger fed the puck to the front, it made for a freebie of a goal for Colton Sceviour, whose shot either went in and out quickly, or hit the crossbar.
Officials deliberated interminably over the video replays from various angles before finally confirming the call on the ice, and Sceviour's first goal as a Penguin made it a 2-2 game at 2:10 of the second.
A cluster of penalty calls on both sides led to some 4-on-4 hockey and then a 4-on-3 Washington power play midway through the middle frame. The Caps' power play was much sharper on that opportunity, regaining the lead at 3-2 when Kuznetsov set up Nicklas Backstrom for a back-door tap-in at 10:09.

But the Pens pulled even again less than three minutes later, making it 3-3 on a nice play from Jason Zucker behind the Washington net. Zucker perfectly fed the late-arriving Marcus Pettersson, and he scored from the high slot, beating Samsonov on the glove hand side at 12:57, notching the first goal by a Pens' defenseman this season.
"We got caught out on the ice," laments Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We had guys out there for over a minute; we couldn't get the change we were looking for. A lot of it had to do with puck decisions, but at that point we were out there for over a minute, and not with any gas in the tank.
"When you lose your energy, you stop thinking, you stop playing the game the way you normally would, and we definitely got caught on that one."
Playing their third game in less than 72 hours, the Caps looked fine in the first but seemed visibly low on fuel in the second, as Laviolette noted. Washington won only six of 23 draws in the middle period and mustered only three shots on net. Just one of those shots - a 65-footer off the stick of Zdeno Chara at the 3:34 mark - came at 5-on-5.
The third period was a little more even, but neither team was able to light the lamp. Ovechkin narrowly missed his second of the game on a Caps power play, but his one-timer from his office rang both posts and bounded harmlessly away.
In overtime, the Caps survived as the Pens had the better of the possession as well as the scoring chances. Having pushed the game into the shootout, none of four Capitals were able to get a puck behind DeSmith, and Jake Guentzel won it for the Penguins with a sublime deke and a soft slide through Samsonov's five-hole.
Despite suffering their first setback of the season, the Caps are in good shape with one game left on their four-game road trip, the longest in franchise history to start a season.

"If we're looking at these three games, I think some periods are better than others," says Backstrom. "I think maybe the first was pretty good, the second was really bad and the third was all right. It was the same against Buffalo, too; in the second game we played [two] really bad periods, and the third was pretty good.
"I think we've got to find that consistency a little bit better, and make sure we're playing 60 minutes. That was one of the issues last year, too; we couldn't put together a 60-minute game. So we've got to work on that for sure."
The Capitals will have their first practice day of the young season on Monday, giving them a chance to work on whatever ails them.