The Washington Capitals got crushed on Friday night by the St. Louis Blues. They got a snipe from Daniel Sprong for his sixth goal of the year, assisted by Aliaksei Protas and Trevor van Riemsdyk at 2:02.
At the time it looked like a lot of goals would be scored. There were. They were just five unanswered goals from the Blues. First it was Torey Krug at 12:10. 1-1 was the score after one and shots were even at 10 apiece.
The Blues added three in the second period. First from Pavel Buchnevich at 9:08. Then Oskar Sundqvist at 17:20 and then Ivan Barbashev at 13:59. The Caps led in shots 9-6 in the second period despite the 4-1 onslaught.
Shots were even at eight in the third period and the Caps had the edge 27-24 overall but Buchnevich added an empty net goal at 16:08 to put the game away as if there was any doubt.
The Caps went 0 for 3 on the power play while their penalty kill stopped both Blues power plays. Ilya Samsonov got the start in goal and allowed four goals on 16 shots. Zach Fucale came in for the third period and stopped all seven shots he faced.
Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette told the media after the game:
"“It’s frustrating tonight. It was quiet, kind of a game that didn’t have a lot of shots, a lot of chances, but the ones that they got, they had some quality to them and the ones we got in the first period they had quality to them, they just didn’t go.”"
Unless Vitek Vanecek is recovered from his non COVID illness expect Fucale to get the start tonight when the Capitals continue their midwestern road trip against the Minnesota Wild. That game will start at 8 p.m. eastern. Then the Caps come home Monday night to host the Boston Bruins.