Caps Pull Off Multiple Comebacks, Earn Point in OT Loss to Sharks – Is it 2010 Again?

In most seasons, game 3 out of 82 ends up lost amongst the Hockey-Reference.com pages to be forgotten forever. Most of them are seemingly irrelevant come season’s end. Sometimes, though, one game even if it’s in October can be much bigger than a simple point or two in the standings. The Caps may have fallen 6-5 in the shootout, but that’s far from the point. They fell behind 3-0 in the first 10 minutes tonight. They battled back to make it 4-3. After all hope seemed lost when it was 5-3, the Caps instead of packing it in made an electrifying late comeback to send it into OT and earn a point. This is a character-building “loss” for the Caps. Onto the bullet points:

• Before the game was even five minutes old, the Caps found themselves behind 2-0. Faceoffs have been an early area of concern for the Caps and it cost them when the Sharks won a clean draw for a quick goal by Defenseman Matt Irwin in the first two minutes.
• The Caps’ penalty killing unit chose an inopportune time to give up its first goal of the year as Irwin, again, put away a rebound in front of Braden Holtby’s crease. Raise your hand if you had Matt Irwin scoring the first two goals of the year in the first five minutes of this one…
• As if that weren’t embarrassing enough, 4th line face-puncher John Scott picked a top corner on a 2-on-2 rush in the ninth minute to chase Holtby from the game.
• Also, there’s this:

• For the record, I don’t think Brooks Orpik was entirely responsible for the Scott goal. Evgeny Kuznetsov did a pretty lousy job corralling Orpik’s routine outlet pass, which led to the rush the other way. But Scott maybe kind of skated around Orpik and led to a lot of twitter angst (click on the link. It’s hilarious)

• The Caps broke the Sharks unscored-on-this-season streak shortly into the second on a Marcus Johansson power play tap-in following a pretty passing sequence.
• That set off an insane scoring run that saw the Caps make a game of it again. Joe Pavelski scored on a curl-and-drag on a two-on-one to make it 4-1. Then within the next two minutes, Mike Green scored through a Liam O’Brien screen and Alex Ovechkin, at even strength no less, beat Niemi with a wrister to make it 4-3. It felt like 2010 again.
• The Caps, though, couldn’t carry the momentum over into the third. After the Sharks controlled the puck to start the frame, Tommy Wingels scored on an odd-man rush following a brutal turnover. Barry Trotz was quite irate on the bench. The poor guy must hate free-for-all hockey.
• On the ice for that goal? Orpik and John Carlson. They were on for all five Sharks goals. That can’t happen. They were broken up after that last tally.
• The Caps weren’t done though. Brooks Laich drew a tripping penalty on Scott Burns with his speed on the rush with 6:14 remaining. Madness ensued. Ovechkin soon picked a corner from the top of the left circle for his fourth of the year. He’s absolutely lights out from that spot.
• Less than two minutes later, Mike Green in all his offensive wizardry hit Troy Brouwer with a wonderful breakout pass and breakaway. Brouwer faked out Niemi before roofing the game tying goal and it was 5-5. Verizon Center went bonkers. This can’t be real life.
• As if that weren’t dramatic enough, Nicklas Backstrom took a poorly timed high sticking minor with under two minutes to play. The Sharks threatened to end it in regulation on the power play, but Washington’s penalty killers stepped up and held on even through overtime limiting the Sharks to one power play shot.
• Andre Burakovsky watch: The rookie recorded a secondary assist on the game tying goal his fourth point in three games. He setup John Carlson for a golden chance on a deflection in overtime. His +4 Fenwick was just fine. He belongs.
• Shootout summary: Backstrom was denied. Patrick Marleau was denied. Kuznetsov hit the post. Pavelski beat Justin Peters. Eric Fehr missed.
• Fenwick summary: Caps 59.49%, Sharks 40.51%. That will work. Backstrom and Ovechkin went on a rampage with +17 Fenwick scores and absolutely dominated a good defenseman in Marc-Edouard Vlasic who went -12.

This would not have happened last season. No way, no how under Adam Oates could this team have come close to turning this into a game after falling behind early. Holtby and Peters were not good in net tonight, and the defensive coverage had its lapses. And yet, the Caps found another way to make it work. They put on a display of offense rarely seen around these parts in years.

Trotz is probably going to be upset with the mental mistakes. That’s good. He can coach them on details. What’s more important is that this team will now believe it’s in every game no matter how insurmountable the odds. We’ll take that any day for a game 3 out of 82.