ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Washington Capitals know adjustments need to be made if they hope to even their best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 at Capital One Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS).
The Capitals are the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division and the East, but it was the Hurricanes who controlled play for most of Game 1, outshooting the Capitals 33-14 in a 2-1 overtime win. Carolina, the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan, finished with a 94-34 advantage in shot attempts.
“We can't defend for the amount of time that we defended last night, be under attack for as long as we were, and expect to have success in this series,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said after an optional practice Wednesday. “But we understand that Carolina and what they do, they're going to control play for significant portions of the game.
“Ninety-[four] shot attempts, it was a little high. So, we're going to need to bring that down.”
The Capitals repeatedly were hemmed in their zone by the Hurricanes’ forecheck and unable to keep the puck in the offensive zone; their 14 shots on goal nearly were matched by their 13 giveaways. Washington went more than 15 minutes of game action without a shot on goal, from 12:08 of the second period until 7:55 of the third.
"We need to put more pressure on their defensemen,” Capitals forward Nic Dowd said. “As you saw early in the second, we put pressure on their defensemen, they started coughing up pucks and then we had opportunities. We just didn't do enough of that. It's not saying we're going to have 94 shot attempts like the Carolina Hurricanes; I don't think that's our game. But I think at the same point, we have to do a better job of stressing their defensemen in the offensive zone.”
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, who scored four goals in five games during the first round against the Montreal Canadiens, was limited to one shot on goal in 17:12 of ice time Tuesday.
Despite their offensive struggles, Aliaksei Protas scored the game's only goal during the first two periods, and Washington led until Logan Stankoven tied it at 9:42 of the third off a turnover. Jaccob Slavin won it for Carolina at 3:06 of overtime.
The Capitals finished 0-for-2 on the power play. The Hurricanes are 17-for-17 on the penalty kill during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“All in all we didn't play a very good game, [but] we still had an opportunity to win that game,” Dowd said. “Once you get into under 10 minutes, we give up a goal, which it happens. It's playoffs. It's not a big deal. You can't dwell on that. And then going into overtime, it's really anybody's game at that point.”
Washington forward Brandon Duhaime said his team needs to be more physical in Game 2 after it was outhit 44-31 Tuesday.
“That definitely could be part of our game,” Duhaime said. “Playing physical, I think that’s been our identity all year, playing that hard, physical game, so we’ve just got to adjust to that.”
