Canadiens Take Down Caps, 5-2

Nearly a quarter century after their last visit to Quebec City, the Caps returned here on Thursday night to face the Montreal Canadiens in a preseason contest. Washington was sluggish out of the gates, and it dropped its second straight 5-2 exhibition decision to the Habs.

For the third time in as many preseason games, the Caps fell behind in the first, surrendering the game's first goal. In this instance a turnover at the Washington line resulted in a quick transition and a 1-0 Montreal lead at 3:06 of the first. Phillip Danault stripped the puck and went cross-ice for Brendan Gallagher, who beat Caps goalie Pheonix Copley to give Montreal an early lead.

Less than three minutes later, the Caps again turned the puck over at their line, and again the Habs made them pay. This time it was old friend Joel Ward who collected the puck and fed Michael Chaput, who put it behind Copley to make it a 2-0 game at 5:51.
Washington permitted a goal in the final minute of each of the three periods of its previous game, a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, and the Caps kept that dubious streak intact in the final minute of the first frame. Yet another turnover - this one deeper in the zone - resulted in a Jacob de la Rose goal at 19:23, pushing the Habs' lead to 3-0.
The Caps had as many shots as the Canadiens had goals in the first, coming out on the short end of a 14-3 disparity in that department.
Early in the second, the Canadiens pushed their advantage to 4-0 on a power-play goal. Seconds after Andre Burakovsky had a shorthanded semi-breakaway, the Habs struck in transition, Gallagher feeding Jacob de la Rose perfectly and de la Rose tucking the puck neatly into the net at 2:28.
The Caps cut into the Canadiens' lead with a pair of power-play goals in the middle frame. First, Alex Ovechkin drilled a shot to the net from his left dot office at 5:17. From center point Christian Djoos put the puck on a tee for the Caps' captain, and Ovechkin did the rest, making it a 4-1 game.

Strong puck movement enabled the Caps to score again on the man advantage in the back half of the second. Brett Connolly served up a pretty pass for Connor Hobbs, who crept in from the point and beat Habs goalie Charlie Lindgren to make it 4-2 at 13:06.
"Conno, geez, what a look," says Hobbs. "He made a great play to me and I could almost count to three, I had so much time. I was pretty lucky and fortunate, and the puck went in."

As was planned before the start of the game, Vitek Vanecek came on in relief of Copley at the outset of the third period. Just past the midway point of the third, Rinat Valiev scored from the left point to close out the scoring, sending the Caps (0-2-1) to their third straight setback in exhibition action.
Each of the Caps' last two games has featured an inordinate amount of special teams time, making it difficult for teams and players to get into a flow or a rhythm. When you add in the fact that some players are playing games for the first time in months, it makes for some sloppy hockey.
At this point in the preseason, more five-on-five play might be beneficial.

"Special teams you can always work on; there is lots of video," says Washington winger Tom Wilson, who suited up for the first time this preseason on Thursday. "It's always good to have [special teams] reps, but that being said, it affects the flow of the game. I was a little rusty and took some penalties. In the regular season, that's not going to be acceptable. That being said, you want to get some five-on-five time, especially guys that are trying to get a look. You want them to get on the ice as much as possible, so I've got to do a better job of staying out of the box - our whole team [does]. The power play was good at points, but at five-on-five they were the better team."
Caps coach Todd Reirden knows his team needs to be better at five-on-five, but he is okay with his team getting plenty of special team reps, too.

"You don't get a lot of flow to the game when that happens," admits Reirden, "but with that being said, the special teams are such a big part of a team's success that you like to get actual real reps. It's tough to compare it to practice, as much as you want to practice.
"Real game action is highly important for our power play guys - you saw it last game with Nick [Backstrom] and T.J. [Oshie] and their group., and then you saw it tonight with Kuzy and Ovi and their group as well getting a lot of minutes. That live game action can't be duplicated, so that will help us in the long term, in terms of special teams play. We've been able to kill a lot of penalties and do some things that way in terms of how aggressive we want to be up ice. We've been able to be much improved in that area thus far, but at five-on-five we've got to improve. We've got to improve and we'll continue to work at that starting [Friday] again."