Before I get into the game, I lost my close cousin on Friday and he was a huge Capital’s fan and Cap’s memorabilia collector even had 8BOOM8 as his license plate for Ovi. If it wasn’t for him I would have never been a Capital’s fan and being from NY I’d probably be a Rangers fan (puke). So I wanted to thank him for making me into the huge Caps fan that I am today! Love you and I’ll miss you big guy.
After a quick turnover from Saturday’s loss against Nashville, the Caps took on the Hurricanes of Carolina Sunday in this Metropolitan Division matchup.
After a scoreless 1st period things didn’t get going till Sebastian Aho gave the Canes the lead halfway through the 2nd.
The Capitals got on the board and tied the game as Martin Fehervary found open space in the middle of the ice untouched ripped a wrister low glove side to beat the Cane’s goalie. This was Martin’s first goal of the season and his 15th of his career and first since March 17th, 2023
The game remained 1-1 for the remainder of the 2nd, 3rd, and even the 3v3 OT period. Which meant the game would be headed to a shootout.
In the shootout there was only one guy to reach the back of the net and that man was the slow and steady Evgeny Kuznetsov. It is laugh out loud funny how careless he looks during shootouts, must drive the opposing goalies crazy. This was Kuzy’s 28th career shootout goal and he has 28 goals in 63 shootout attempts which ranks 1st in franchise history.
This gave the Caps the 2-1 and two points against the division foe.
Given that the Caps were coming off a game the day before and not much time to rest, I thought this young and skilled Canes team would take advantage of this teams lack of rest, but this team used the bend don’t break mentality and squeaked out a nice gritty win.
The Caps finally got a goalie interference call go their way when Stefan Noesen entered the crease on his own and then was nudged by Edmundson who then hit Kuemper which allowed the puck to reach the back of the net but after review the goal was disallowed.
We have now gone 13 games without a goal from Ovechkin. I’m not worried about him because he is one of those guys once he gets going he catches fire. Even though he isn’t scoring he is having an impact when he doesn’t have the puck. If you noticed on Marty’s goal Ovi was able to pull two defenders towards him which left the middle wide open for the goal.
During the 3rd it felt like one of those games where the Caps were just not going to hold the tie and let in a late game losing goal, but Kuemper played almost lights out last night. He had 26 saves in regulation and was locked in during OT and the shootout.
Kuemps is 2-0 in his last two starts with a 1.44 GAA and a .952 save percentage.
The Capitals will finally get some rest over the next couple days before getting back in action versus the Islanders on Wednesday.
The Morning Skate 