Some days are diamonds; some days are rocks.
For the Washington Capitals, Saturday’s 7-1 setback to the Ottawa Senators most certainly falls into the latter category. The Caps fell behind on Ottawa’s first shot of the night, and they were never in the contest thereafter. The loss was Washington’s worst on home ice in nearly a decade and a half, since a 6-0 whitewash at the hands of the New York Rangers here on Feb. 26, 2011.
Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson led the Ottawa onslaught of offense; both players had a pair of goals and three points on the night. The Caps were dented for three power-play goals against, they lost their third coach’s challenge of the young season, and they also lost the services of center Dylan Strome, one of their most durable players.
In captain Alex Ovechkin’s 1,500th career game, the Caps came out flat and stayed flat. By the end of the second period, the Caps had only two more shots on net (six) than the Sens had goals. Ottawa scored the first five goals of the game before Trevor van Riemsdyk poked a loose puck home early in the third for Washington’s lone goal of the game.
Washington’s attack was listless; the Caps rarely spent sustained time in Ottawa ice, and although the actually teed up a total of 54 shot attempts – only three fewer than the Sens – they were outshot by a whopping 34-12. Twenty-five of the Caps’ attempts were blocked and 16 others were off the mark
“Disappointing,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We were not good in any facet of the game, right from puck drop.”
For the Caps, Saturday’s game began inauspiciously. A mere 73 seconds into the contest, Caps defenseman Matt Roy departed after catching a puck up high. He left a trail of blood that stretched the width of the ice, and the ice crew needed some time to clean up the mess while Roy went off for repairs.
Forty-five seconds after play resumed, Washington fell behind 1-0 when Dylan Cozens made a nifty redirection of an Artem Zub slap pass from the right point. Cozens’ goal came on Ottawa’s first shot of the night at 1:58, marking just the second time in nine games this season the Sens had managed to deliver the game’s opening salvo.
Washington went on an early power play, but when Jakob Chychrun and Strome became awkwardly entangled behind the Ottawa net, the latter had to be helped off the ice.
Strome missed several minutes before taking a few tentative twirls around the ice during a television timeout, then taking two brief shifts late in the first. He retired for the evening thereafter.
“We’ll evaluate him [Sunday],” says Carbery. “It’s concerning, but I’d be guessing if I said anything.”
Charlie Lindgren was on his game in the first frame, and he kept the deficit at one as Roy returned to action after receiving repairs. Lindgren’s best stop of the period was a brilliant glove denial of Batherson’s backhand bid from the top of the paint just after the midpoint of the period.
The wheels came off early in the second. Shane Pinto scored for the Sens at 3:27; he pushed Lindgren and the puck into the net as he was sandwiched from behind by Chychrun. A video review showed the puck crossed the goal line before the net was knocked off its moorings, but Carbery and the Caps called timeout and then elected to issue an unsuccessful coach’s challenge, which resulted in Cozens’ second goal of the game on the ensuing power play at 4:27, exactly a minute after the Pinto goal.
“We felt like the odds of us getting it right were probably slim,” admits Carbery of the challenge. “But judging by the way that our group looked, I felt like we needed to keep that game at 1-0, so it was worth a shot. To go down 2-0 with how we looked and win the game, I thought it was going to be a difficult hole to climb out of.”
Carbery was proven correct on that count.
At 6:22, Nick Cousins cruised in on a breakaway and made it a 4-0 game with the Sens’ third goal in a span of just under three minutes of playing time.
In the final minute of the second, a bit of a donnybrook broke out when an understandably frustrated Lindgren began battling with Ottawa’s Ridley Greig in his crease, prompting Ottawa netminder Linus Ullmark to chug the length of the ice to join the stir, which didn’t ultimately amount to much. No fighting majors or misconducts were doled out in the wake of that episode.
“It felt like a weird game right from the get-go,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “There wasn't really any flow in the first; it felt like there was 15 whistles in the first five minutes and blood on the ice, and it was just a bit of a weird start to the game and we just could never get into it.
“Give them credit. They worked hard, they were good in their battles, they tracked hard, they took time and space away, and we didn't. We just didn't have the legs to tilt the ice at any point throughout the game, and it ends up pretty lopsided and not good enough.”
The rout was already on by the time the third got underway, but Batherson made it 5-0 in the first minute of the third, and van Riemsdyk answered just over four minutes later. Thomas Chabot scored the Sens’ third power-play goal of the game at 9:47 of the third, and Batherson’s second of the game and the season finished the scoring at 14:22.
In its first eight games of the season, Ottawa had a grand total of 77 minutes and 43 seconds of lead time. The Sens nearly doubled that figure with a shade over 58 minutes of lead time in Saturday’s victory.
“A strong game by our group,” says Sens coach Travis Green. “I just liked our focus from the drop of the puck.”
