Aiming for a fourth win in a five-game homestand on Wednesday evening towards the Florida Panthers, the Caps fell simply shy of the mark. They took a 3-2 lead into the third interval, however a pair of agonizing errors had been made late, and so they cost the Caps a degree in a 4-3 additional time loss to the Cats at Capital One Arena.
Sam Reinhart scored on the one shot of additional time, beating Caps’ middle Evgeny Kuznetsov to the online and lifting the puck over Washington netminder Darcy Kuemper for the game-winner, simply 15 seconds into the additional session. Panthers’ captain Sasha Barkov arrange the play, sending Reinhart into Washington ice with an oblique feed.
“Kuzy out of position,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, explaining what occurred on the game-winner. “He chased down ice and ended up losing a foot race. If you’re going to chase down ice, you just can’t get beat. He got beat.”
Barkov additionally performed an element in establishing the tying tally within the third, making the Caps pay for an pointless icing name by profitable the following face-off forward of Evan Rodrigues’ tying purpose at 3:33 of the third, six seconds after Barkov’s face-off win. Rodrigues beat Caps’ defenseman Alex Alexeyev to the again door for a faucet in on the proper put up.
Carbery was happy together with his workforce for many of the first interval, however not a lot thereafter, and he lamented his workforce’s puck selections general, and notably on Rodrigues’ purpose.
“It was the icing in the third, and the coverage on the back side,” says the Caps’ bench boss. “You’re going to make mistakes; it’s hockey, it’s sports. There’s going to be mistakes throughout the game and mismanaged pucks and all that sort of stuff. You just can’t make egregious mistakes, and those are examples. You just can’t lose a guy on the back side and give up a back door tap in. You can’t ice the puck when we’re already tired and there’s [other] options.”
Anthony Mantha scored twice for Washington in Wednesday’s recreation, however the large winger departed the sport within the third interval beneath scary circumstances; he took a puck to the pinnacle when a Kuznetsov shot frivolously deflected off a Florida defender and caught Mantha up excessive. He instantly went down in some misery, and he needed to be aided off the ice and down the tunnel with 7:47 left within the third.
Mantha’s departure was unlucky as a result of he and linemates Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas had been doubtless Washington’s finest unit on this evening; the trio was answerable for all three Caps’ targets within the recreation and every of the three completed the evening with two factors.
“I’m not sure,” says Carbery, requested for a postgame update on Mantha’s situation. “I haven’t heard anything on his status; we’ll re-evaluate [Thursday].”
For simply the third time in 11 video games this season, the Capitals drew first blood on the scoresheet in Wednesday’s recreation. The purpose was of the fluky selection, however nothing that lights the lamp is tarnished for the Caps nowadays.
Just after the midpoint of the primary body, Mantha carried into Florida ice and tried to ship a feed to McMichael. The go didn’t get by means of; it caromed off Florida middle Anton Lundell within the excessive slot, then bounded towards the online entrance the place it trickled by means of Sergei Bobrovsky to offer Washington a 1-0 lead at 10:42.
Florida rallied again for a pair of targets within the again half of the primary to take a 2-1 result in the room at first intermission.
About two minutes after the primary of Mantha’s targets, the Panthers bought even. From simply above the purpose line, Florida ahead Matthew Tkachuk put a feed to the excessive slot for Oliver Ekman-Larsson. From there, the veteran defenseman issued a well-placed shot that went simply over Darcy Kuemper’s proper pad, squaring the rating at 12:49.
Less than 4 minutes later, Florida took the lead when Reinhart made a pleasant feed from the nook to arrange Barkov’s fourth purpose of the season, a shortly launched snapper from the underside of the left circle to the highest far nook of the cage at 16:45.
In the entrance half of the second, Protas and McMichael attached on a great thing about a shorthanded purpose to even the sport. Protas used his boardinghouse attain to securely usher the puck out of hurt’s manner in Washington’s finish. He carried the puck removed from his physique, sending McMichael into Florida ice with a step on a Panther’s backchecker. McMichael beat Bobrovsky with a nifty backhander at 6:13.
“I saw their second guy kind of let off the gas a little bit,” recounts McMichael. “I saw an opening and I just took it. Pro made a hell of a play over to me, and I just had to finish the rest.”
“That’s a great goal from him, because I didn’t really see him,” says Protas. “I was more focused on protection, because the [penalty kill] is more about just getting the puck deep. I heard him; he talked to me, and I just moved it there. Everything else is on him, so great play.”
It wouldn’t be a 2023-24 Caps recreation if Washington didn’t have a purpose taken off the board by way of coach’s problem, and that occurred for the fifth time within the final seven video games, simply forward of the midpoint of the center interval. Sonny Milano appeared to have given the Caps a 3-2 lead at 11:34 of the second, however Florida issued a profitable coach’s problem, protecting the sport even.
Milano has had two targets taken off the board because of coach’s challenges.
Mantha’s second of the evening got here late within the center interval, enabling the Caps to take a 3-2 result in the third. McMichael pressured a turnover alongside the half wall in Washington ice, springing himself and Mantha on a 2-on-1 rush. McMichael fed Mantha because the latter approached the online, and Mantha shortly went backhand to forehand and went again towards the grain with a fast shot to the left facet of the online at 15:51.
“Mo beat out that backchecker,” says McMichael of the purpose that restored the Caps’ lead. “I just had to slide it over to him, and he had a good finish.”
The Caps couldn’t convert on a third-period energy play, and so they wanted a late save from Kuemper on Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen to get the sport to additional time, the place Reinhart was ready the wrangle the additional level for his facet, Florida’s second consecutive additional time victory; they downed Columbus 5-4 within the additional session on Monday.
“It was good,” says Panthers’ coach Paul Maurice. “Two fully totally different video games; this one was a little bit of a slog, I believed. Our begin was inferior to theirs, our final 10 [minutes] of the primary was actually good, I appreciated that.
“The first [Caps’ goal] was a bad break, but you recover from it. Then you give a shorty against; that took us a while to recover from. The Rodrigues goal was clearly incredibly important.”
