The good, the bad, the ugly against Coyotes
The ugly
The ugly was that atrocious third period. It started with Jose Brown’s goal to put the Coyotes on the board. Then Nick Ritchie scored twice including the dagger with 35.4 seconds left.
Ritchie’s first goal of the night came at 9:45 to tie the game and it came on an unlucky bounce for the Capitals as it ringed off the crossbar but crossed the plane for a good goal.
The refs initially waved it off but the goal light came on. As a result they changed their mind but the replay unfortunately showed the puck indeed crossed the line.
The Caps are clearly banged up but injuries are what fans can blame for their recent debacles. The players aren’t using as an excuse especially Alex Ovechkin:
"“It starts from us leaders and we can’t blame (injuries) on it. … we have to pull on the rope with all our hands and don’t panic and don’t think it’s over. We just have to bounce back and play together as a team and as a group.”"
"“Injuries don’t have anything to do with the game tonight. We had a game, we were in control of it … we needed to bury it and we didn’t. It’s on us. Injuries are part of it and there are things we could have done on the ice to win the third period.”"
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The Caps will look to correct these mistakes at practice today at 11:30 a.m. at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. They’ll have a morning skate at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow and take on the Edmonton Oilers at 8 p.m.