Whelp plain and simple Thursday was not the Capitals night losing to Florida 5-1 in game two.
Scoring got started late in the first by Aaron Ekblad of a interesting bounce, than Sasha Barkov made it 2-0 from a nice tape to tape pass from Jonathan Huberdeau.
Nicklas Backstrom cut the deficit to one early in the second period on a nice bad angle shot off a nice fake slapshot pass by Ovi, but it would be the Caps only goal of the night unfortunately.
Then it was all Cats the rest of the second period with goals coming from Mason Marchment, Anton Lundell, and Carter Verhaeghe to make it 5-1 Panthers in the game and that would be the rest of the scoring being that the bleeding was stopped in the third period with no goals from either side.
The series is not tied 1-1 heading to Washington. Being optimistic we were able to steal a road win which is huge in any playoff series so lets hope we get Wilson back and the boys take that D.C. crowd and allow it to fuel them a little more.
The Caps played some really great hockey in the first period, but just were not rewarded on the score sheet. Oshie had a great chance at a shorthanded goal but was denied which really could have changed the momentum in the game right there.
Our defense really showed why its one of our weak spots tonight and that includes John Carlson’s big turnover on the Barkov goal.
The second period after the Backy goal showed how dangerous Florida can be with their offense and they showed it by barraging the Caps with goals throughout the second period.
Vitek Vanecek was less than stellar tonight and this was what I was worried about going into this series which was the inconsistency of his play he’s either lights out or he’s terrible there’s not much of an in-between. Now on this topic VV isn’t totally to blame like I mentioned our defense was awful yesterday maybe a couple were VV’s fault but he was left out to dry multiple times. For example this goal below!
Both Trevor van Riemsdyk and TJ Oshie came up lame on a play which you could easily see that they were hurt so lets hope it’s not serious enough to keep at east Oshie out of the lineup the Caps can’t really afford to lose more offensive weapons in a series like this!
Also I am still up in the air in who we start in game 3. I am leaning towards Sammy because he did play well when he came in relief but the game was as good as over when he came in. I wouldn’t be opposed starting VV one more time but then again I think game 3 is a must win so that’s why I lean Sammy or VV.
Game 3 is on Saturday and here’s to hoping Willy is back and the Capital One Arena is ready to make some noise!
The Morning Skate 