Capitals come out flat to Canucks
After taking care of the New York Islanders on the road, the Washington Capitals returned home on Sunday afternoon to face the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks snapped their three game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Caps.
The Caps took an early 1-0 lead at 10:31 on a power play goal by Alex Ovechkin from the office. Justin Schultz and Evgeny Kuznetsov had the assists. It was Ovechkin’s 26th of the season and the 756th of his career. He’s 10 away from number three Jaromir Jagr, 45 away from Gordie Howe and 138 away from Wayne Gretzky.
1-0 was the score after one with the Canucks leading in shots 16-11. The Canucks responded in the second period with three unanswered goals. First it was Elias Pettersson 33 seconds in on a power play strike after Nic Dowd was called for interference. Pettersson scored again at 4:48 before Bo Horvat added one on the power play at 18:50.
"“There was a couple of penalties you can’t take.”"
The Caps power play has been horrendous all year but if there was any silver linings from this loss it was that the power play connected twice in four opportunities. 3-1 was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 11-8 in the second period.
That second power play goal for the Caps came from Tom Wilson for his 11th of the season at 6:22 in the third period to pull the Caps within one. It was assisted by Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom. J.T. Miller put the game away with an empty netter. The Caps outshot the Canucks 11-8 in the third and 33-32 overall.
After Vitek Vanecek got the shutout the day before it was Ilya Samsonov’s turn in goal and he had a frustrating afternoon. He made 28 saves for a .903 save percentage. The Caps also got Dmitry Orlov and Carl Hagelin back from COVID protocol while John Carlson would enter. Ovechkin is the only Caps player to have played in every game.
Hot. Capitals get back on track with a 2-0 win on the road against the Islanders. light
The Caps will have the day off tomorrow and then host the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.