The Washington Capitals started Round 2 on Tuesday night in D.C. where they took on those scrappy Carolina Hurricanes. I knew before the series that this matchup would be a tough one because the Canes are pretty well balanced compared to us aside from the goalies which I would give us the node in that area.
Well the title speaks for itself in that the lack of offense from our guys was shocking to say the least. The Hurricanes dominated the puck possession when it came to 5v5 hockey. It felt like the Canes had the puck in our zone for the whole game and they were constantly taking shots taking the saying “pucks on net” to heart cause boy they didn’t pass up any shot opportunity. Overall Frederik Andersen faced 14 shots on net compared Logan Thompson’s 33 shots faced.
To the game action!
After a back forth first period where the Canes dominated possession but Logan Thompson was locked in early and get the game tied going into the 2nd period.
The boys in red got the scoring started where Brandon Duhaime battled against the side boards and was able to sneak the puck out to a flying Protas who took the puck at the top of the right circle and rifled it home for the big 1-0 lead. (This was Aliaksei’s first career playoff goal)
Then we head to the third period with a 1-0 lead, which didn’t last long into the period. Protas made a lazy center pass in faceoff circle area in our defensive zone a big no no. The pass caught Alexeyev off guard and he couldn’t corral the puck and the Canes got the puck to a wide open Logan Stankoven who beat LT to tie the game at 1 a piece. Definitely a learning moment for Protas because the body language on that pass gave like week two of the regular season type pass it was way to careless.
After a Chychrun penalty with 2 minutes left the Caps were able to kill that huge penalty late.
We head to overtime, three minutes in the Canes called game. With Logan Thompson well screened Jaccob Slavin was able to find the back of the net to give the Canes the 2-1 win and the 1-0 series lead.
I don’t want to hear and b.s. about goaltending LT played his ballbag off because it felt like a damn beer league game with home much we got outshot Tuesday night. Just got outplayed in every aspect aside from our goaltending.
Some bright points tonight was Tom Wilson was trying to get ahead in the mental game by taking Aho’s mouthguard. Listen for how we played tonight at least he was trying something.
Also, man this Ryan Leonard kid is gonna be special he had a couple solid chances just couldn’t finish it home and sure as hell isn’t afraid. He even got into it with seasoned Vet Brent Burns (20 year age difference btw). He shouldn’t watch the game from the suite ever this playoffs, he will get his don’t worry and I bet you it comes in a high pressure need a goal situation.
Let’s be honest we were lucky to even make it into overtime. So lets count our blessing that we had a chance to win. With that being said there is a lot of room for improvement and adjustments for Game 2 which we will see a different approach because that’s how good Carbery is.
The boys need to reduce the Hurricane’s offensive pressure on Thursday night if they want to increase the offense of their own to tie up the series!
The Morning Skate 