Despite playing with more than a day between games for the first time in a month on Tuesday at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, the Caps didn’t have the legs to keep up with an energized Kraken squad that outskated, outworked and outscored them 5-1, handing Washington its sixth setback in its last seven games (1-5-1).
Jared McCann scored twice – and had a hat trick goal taken off the board in the third period well after the chapeaus began flying – and had four points to pace the Seattle attack. The Kraken struck for three goals in the middle period and never looked back.
Coming off a weekend in which it pulled three points out of a weekend set of back-to-backs in Calgary and Edmonton, respectively, the Caps came out flat and stayed that way.
“I think right from the start; I thought we got outplayed in the first period significantly,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And so I don't think a lot changed from there. I thought we were outplayed., [I’m] extremely disappointed, extremely disappointed. I just thought we got beat in every area.”
Washington had some transition looks in the first period; Grubauer made an early save on Dylan Strome on a 2-on-1 and he gloved down a Ryan Leonard shot on a 3-on-1 rush in the back half of the first. But Washington’s best scoring opportunity of the first period might have been when Jakob Chychrun missed wide right on a good look – with a yawning cage – midway through the frame.
Late in what was a scoreless first period, Caps winger Ethen Frank was boxed for hi-sticking. Early in the second minute of the middle frame, the Kraken converted in the waning seconds of that carryover power play.
From down low on the left side, Kraken captain Jordan Eberle fed McCann up high at the right point, and the latter ripped a one-timer that appeared to catch a piece of Caps forward Connor McMichael on its way to the twine at 1:15.
Midway through the frame, the Kraken doubled its lead. Ryan Lindgren’s point drive was blocked in front, but Matty Beniers fired the rebound on net from the slot, and Caps goaltender Logan Thompson made the stop on that one. But the rebound of that rip went right to McCann at the right post, and he put it home for a 2-0 Seattle lead at 10:09.
The Kraken scored again late in the frame to carry a comfortable 3-0 lead into the third. Bidding for the hat trick, McCann put a shot off the left post. The puck caromed right to Eberle, who tucked it home to make the deficit a goal deeper at 17:54.
Despite yielding a couple odd man breaks in the first, Seattle defended hard and well in Tuesday’s game, and the Caps couldn’t find the time and space needed to make a play in the offensive zone.
Early in the third, McCann scored his third goal of the night on a breakaway, only to have it nullified by a Beniers double minor for hi-sticking Caps center Justin Sourdif. Suddenly down just three instead of four goals and with a four-minute power play looming, the Caps managed to avoid the ignominy of a shutout when Alex Ovechkin bagged his 22nd goal of the season, finishing a pretty triangular passing sequence from Chychrun and Leonard, respectively.
But that was as good as it got for the Caps, who finished the night with just 20 shots on net, nine of them coming in the third after the game looked to be out of reach. It was their lowest shot total in nearly two months, which is almost as long as they’ve been spinning their wheels without stringing together consecutive wins.
Ryker Evans and Beniers tacked on late goals in the third to account for the 5-1 final, and in addition to McCann’s third goal coming off the board, the Caps issued a successful coach’s challenge late in the third for goaltender interference by Jacob Melanson on what would have been a Ryan Winterton goal.
“I just think execution,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson of what was lacking in Washington’s game on this night. “I think they were flying around a little bit, but when teams do that, if you make good plays, you look really good. And if you don’t, you don’t look good. And that was the difference.”
