Grading Capitals defense against Oilers

The Washington Capitals got a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers and the offense did good. But how about the defense?

I thought the defense played good as well. They limited the Oilers to just two goals which not many teams can do with an offensive talented team like them.

Heck they even limited Connor McDavid to one goal and it came shorthanded on a breakaway for his 22nd of the season. They also shut down Leon Draisaitl as Brett Kulak had the only other goal.

The defense all did all this despite being banged up. Here’s how the pairs lined up via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:

Gustafsson-Carlson
TvR-Jensen
Alexeyev-Irwin

Martin Fehervary was placed on injured reserve and players that are placed on IR have to miss at least seven days. Fehervary won’t be eligible to return any earlier than on Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets on the road.

Fehervary got hurt in the second period on Saturday night against the Calgary Flames on a hit along the boards by Flames forward Milan Lucic.

Fehervary was spotted after the game with a sling on his left arm.

Dmitry Orlov missed his 14th straight game with a lower body injury. He has been making progress but has yet to be medically cleared. Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan told the media over the weekend that the injury has been hard to diagnose and treat.

Back to the game. The Caps shutdown defense not only came from their defenseman but fellow forward Aliaksei Protas who finished with a sick team first assist to set up the game winning goal from Nic Dowd.

Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette called Protas’ game last night his “best game”. He did a great job especially shutting down the Oilers top line.

Grade B-: Any time you allow just two goals to a powerhouse offensive team like the Edmonton Oilers, it deserves an above average grade. And they got the job done despite being extremely shorthanded that even Erik Gustafsson left the game with an injury.