"We didn't give ourselves a chance from the beginning," says Caps associate coach Todd Reirden. "It started with how we managed the puck, and then you end up playing defense too often. You can come up with all the complicated systems you want, but it always comes back to how you manage the puck, so I was disappointed with that tonight."
Washington fell down a goal before it recorded its first shot on net. With Liam O'Brien in the box for goaltender interference, Montreal took a 1-0 lead at 4:12 of the first on Alexander Radulov's deflection of a Pateryn drive from the left circle.
In less than six minutes time over the middle of the opening period, the Canadiens were called twice for having too many men on the ice. The Caps weren't able to take advantage of that largesse, and Montreal doubled its lead with another power-play goal late in the first. Radulov made a pretty feed to Beaulieu, and the latter beat Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek off the rush to make it a 2-0 game at 17:41.
Marcus Johansson scored from the high slot on a Washington rush just ahead of the midpoint of the middle period, halving the Habs' lead with help from fellow Swedes Andre Burakovsky and Christian Djoos. But the Canadiens were able to restore their two-goal lead just 11 seconds later when Paul Byron put on a burst of speed, made a net drive and beat Vanecek to make it a 3-1 game.
Mitchell scored at 16:13 of the second to extend the Montreal lead to 4-1, scoring just as Caps winger Nathan Walker exited the penalty box.
A scary moment occurred less than two minutes later when Montreal forward Andrew Shaw plastered Caps defenseman Connor Hobbs into the boards face first. With Hobbs prone on the ice behind the Montreal net, Walker dropped the gloves and fought Shaw, who pulled 30 minutes worth of penalties - five for boarding, five for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct - from the sequence.
Hobbs returned to action in the third period.
The Caps' five-minute, all-you-can-eat power play was short-circuited when Zach Sanford was boxed for tripping in the middle of Shaw's boarding major.
Montreal pushed its lead to 5-1 on Mitchell's second goal of the game at 14:43 of the third, and the Caps closed out the night's scoring with a power play strike of their own with 4:03 left in the game. Playing in his first preseason game, Sanford deflected a Hobbs shot past Habs goalie Zachary Fucale to account for the 5-2 final.
"It definitely didn't have as much flow as [Monday] night," says Walker, who skated in both of Washington's first two exhibition games in as many nights. "There were more penalties called and it kind of took the rhythm out of the four-line game. It was unfortunate about the loss, but I'm sure the team will respond."
Back In The Saddle -In Tuesday's 5-2 loss to the Canadiens in Montreal, Caps defenseman Karl Alzner returned to the ice for game action for the first time since undergoing offseason surgery for a sport hernia repair of the pelvic floor.
Alzner's return was one of the few bright spots for the Caps in a game that slipped from them early.
"It felt okay," says Alzner. "It was hard, because we didn't play very good as a team. We had a lot of [defensive] zone [time] and a lot of [penalty] killing. So the game itself, you didn't feel like you could get into much of a groove. But overall, it felt okay. It was the first game in a little while. Regardless of what you're coming in from, it feels a little bit weird. I would have liked to be a little bit better, to have a little bit more opportunity to skate the length of the ice. We got one out of the way. It wasn't pretty, but it's out of the way."
Asked whether he had any residual pain or discomfort, Alzner replied thusly:
"There is nothing restricting; there is no pain. It's just building up the strength and leg conditioning. That's the hard part. You usually spend two or three months doing it, so to try and be able to do it in a few weeks is going to be a little bit difficult. But we're grinding away on it pretty hard, so once it comes back it won't be any worse."
While a game like Tuesday's with an abundance of penalty killing and defensive zone time will never be ideal to a coaching staff, it played right into Alzner's rehab.
"This is what I wanted personally, a lot of the penalty kill and the stuff down low, that's the hard stuff," says the 28-year-old defenseman. "Those are the things that are going to really test me. In that case, it was okay. But for our team, we didn't manage the puck well so you don't get the full flow of the game and the full feel. That was tough. Sometimes you have those games. But we'll be better from that."
Alzner skated 18:08 on the night, including 5:48 of shorthanded ice time, tops among the team's defensemen. He enters the 2016-17 season with a streak of 458 consecutive games played, the longest in franchise history.
First Strike - Rookie Caps center Zach Sanford made his NHL preseason debut against Montreal last night. With the Caps on the power play late in the third period, he parked himself directly in front of Montreal goaltender Zachary Fucale and deflected Connor Hobbs' center point shot into the net for his first preseason goal.
"It's a little bittersweet," says Sanford. "It's nice to get one, but obviously it's way worse losing like that. It's a tough game to play and a tough place to play, too, from what I've heard and what I've seen in this game. So I think I've got a lot to learn from this game, and we'll move onto the next one."
Having played in a trio of rookie camp games last weekend, Sanford expected the level of play to be significantly ramped up last night.
"You come in thinking it's going to be a step up, a step quicker," says Sanford. "We talk about it a lot - playing fast. It's just even quicker than you expect out there, being down there in the game rather than watching it."
Sanford is one of several young forwards vying for perhaps one roster spot this fall, and it's important for all of those candidates to show growth and improvement from game to game.
"I think there is a lot more body position than you would think," observes Sanford. "And around the net and in the corners, getting body position is huge. There are a couple of things I'll pay attention to more this week and going forward. The [penalty kill], I was out there for a couple [of goals] against, so just little details like that can cost you a goal in half a second."
Another Debut - Caps rookie defenseman Hobbs also played in his first pre-season game on Tuesday night in Montreal. Playing alongside Alzner, Hobbs got better as the game wore on, and survived a scary moment late in the second period when Montreal forward Andrew Shaw plastered the 19-year-old defenseman into the glass from behind.
Shaw received a five-minute major for boarding, a five-minute major for fighting Nathan Walker in the wake of the incident (more on that in a bit), a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. But wait, there's more. Shaw will have a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety on Thursday.
For Hobbs and the Caps, the good news is the defenseman came back and played the third period, assisting on Sanford's goal.
"I never got ran from behind in my first game, so that's not something I had to deal with," says Alzner of Hobbs. "Like we said before the game, if the team doesn't play well, then no one really ends up feeling good about their game. So I fell bad for all the guys in that aspect. It's not fun. But you get one out of the way, and you start to feel better and better as they go. You start to learn - like he said to me after - it's a lot of a learning experience out there; just the little bumps and continuing to skate and where to be on the ice. You don't know unless you play a few of them, and until [you do] you can't get better.
"There is so much promise in that kid, it's unbelievable. He's going to be a great defenseman for this team. It just takes some time."
Stand-Up Guy -Another bright spot in Tuesday's game was Caps winger Nathan Walker immediately taking Shaw to task for running Hobbs into the glass.
"A hit like that, you've got to do something about that," declares Walker. "I don't think that was a clean hit by any means, and I stuck up for Hobbsie there."
Shaw tried to egg the crowd on while he was fighting Walker, and he got a couple of extra punches in as he was taking Walker down. But Walker's actions were appreciated.
"I'll always point stuff like that out, and I brought that up after the game," says Caps associate coach Todd Reirden. "That's 'team,' and that's Capitals' hockey and that's one part of hockey that will never change for me is that when you stick together for a teammate - especially in preseason - with something like that, that's incredibly brave and he did an outstanding job there and he was rewarded for that. His effort was pointed out after the game."
Lettermen - Alzner, Jay Beagle and Marcus Johansson sported the alternate captains' "A" for Washington in Tuesday night's game.
By The Numbers - Hobbs led the Caps with 23:34 in ice time. Johansson led Washington forwards with 22:06 in ice time … Christian Thomas paced the Caps with three shots on net, and Beagle led Washington with six shot attempts … Brett Connolly and Darren Dietz each had six hits to lead the Capitals … Dietz led the way with five blocked shots … The Caps were credited with just three even-strength shots on goal for the game's first 40 minutes.
