Not how we wanted our Washington Capital’s season to end but if your team doesn’t raise the cup it will always be a disappointing season.
The Caps lose the game 4-3 in OT and lose the series 4-2 after multiple blown leads.
Since 2018 when the Caps won the Stanley Cup the Caps have not won a playoff series.
The boys started off hot and high paced and throwing the body in droves!
Through the physicality of the first period the Caps were able to cause two of the top-pairing Panther defensemen to the locker-room but could not capitalize on the Panthers shorthanded defense.
After 1 the game was scoreless with the momentum easily in the Cap’s favor it seemed like the puck was in the Caps offensive end the majority of the period.
Then Nic Dowd started the scoring with a beautiful follow and finish your shot play to beat Bob with the feed from Hathaway.
Then almost immediately the lead of was lost by a goal from Ryan Lomberg making it 1-1.
Then Nicklas Backstrom made it 2-1 Caps off one of the best tips I’ve seen in awhile to go top shelf.
Claude Giroux beat Samsonov with a wrister five-hole on a shot that Sammy needs to save plain and simple!
Then late in the 3rd Barkov gives the Panthers the 3-2 lead off a juicy rebound and a sleeping Caps backside defense.
Then by the grace of god the Caps got a power-play and with the goalie pulled. Hand-eye coordination was on full display with Mantha swatting the puck out of the air as it made its way to TJ Oshie who smacked it into the net out of the air to tie the game with a minute left in the game to send the game to overtime.
Then in OT the Capital’s season is ended by the guy who has single handily dominated this series Carter Verhaeghe. How can you not keep an eye on this guy!
Carlson and Fehervary were god awful and almost non-existent this series making bad decision after bad decision.
On a positive note Sammy played his ass off between the pipes which was refreshing to see minus that weak goal by Giroux.
Terrible way to lose a series where the Caps had so many leads just blown away it seemed almost every game.
Overall in my opinion this team exceeded expectations people were saying they would get swept this series. The boys showed serious grit and grind trying to contain this high powered Panther offense especially on the penalty kill which they went 17 for 17 which is an unreal stat!
Our big guns shot blanks this series you have to have your top lines come through if you want to win a series you can’t completely rely on the 3rd and 4th line to carry the load.
This team made the President’s Trophy winning Panthers sweat when most thought they’d just stroll through the Caps and this was without Tom Wilson out of the lineup for the majority of this series! If he is on the ice I think the Caps win this series, but shit happens.
Going forward some changes need to be made especially on the defense and we still have that inconsistency between the net. So I’d love to see them add some pieces this off-season and hopefully some of these young guys grow into role players next season.
It’s been a pleasure writing about the Caps this season, enjoy the other game 7s this weekend and I will see you all next season!
The Morning Skate 