If you can put aside the context leading up to the game and some of the details within the game, capturing an OTL point with your #3 goalie in net against a Stanley Cup champion that came in playing well is a decent even if imperfect result.
But context does matter. The fact that the Hurricanes came in with two straight losses and needing a win cannot be ignored. And the fact that the Hurricanes had a 4-1 lead in the middle of the game and let it get away in a hurry does matter. And the fact that the Hurricanes are still stuck at hockey .500 also matters.
Addressing the first point in my game preview, unlike the other two losses this week, the Hurricanes arrived on time to play a strong first period. Jordan Martinook was actually most noticeable to me early on even if he was only Robin to Aho’s Batman. Martinook scored on the first shift when he gloved down a pass and quickly put it behind Braden Holtby to get the Hurricanes off to a good start. Next the Alexander Ovechkin show kicked off when he beat a drifting Scott Darling from his spot right at the left face-off circle. Next Teravainen made a good play when Washington bobbled a puck on the power play. He got it to Aho for a breakaway who went to his patented move making a subtle shift toward his backhand and then exploiting the goalie’s five hole he had opened up. The Hurricanes would be rewarded for their stronger start with a 2-1 lead.
Then in the second period the circus started. Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen would score in rapid fire fashion early in the period on the power play. Suddenly the Hurricanes had what seemed like a commanding 4-1 lead. At that point, the Capitals successfully attempted to open up the game. They started cheating a bit coming out of their own end and flew as many players as they could through the neutral zone when they had the puck. Evgeni Kuznetzov burst in for a chance. Darling saved that and a first Tom Wilson rebound while the Hurricanes in the vicinity (Teravainen and Martinook) mostly just looked on. Wilson ultimately finished on the third shot. Next the Canes caught an unfortunate officiating bad break. The play started relatively harmlessly with Ovechkin holding the puck at a stand still outside of the top of the face-off circle and Dougie Hamilton in position to defend him. Then a Capitals flew by and put a pull football block on Hamilton which moved Hamilton and made a lane for Ovechkin to take a couple strides to tee up and step into another blast from where seemingly half of his goals come from. The Caps would add another goal less than a minute later on a nifty Travis Boyd tip. And with that, the Hurricanes 4-1 lead had evaporated into the night, and the game was set to enter the third period tied at 4-4.
After some back and forth play in the third period, a Capitals power play would see Ovechkin complete his hat trick again blasting away from inside the left face-off circle. At that point, the game seemed to be slipping away from the Hurricanes. But shortly thereafter, Braden Holtby flubbed a clearing attempt off his own net and right to Justin Williams who quickly finished into a half-empty net to tie the game at 5-5. The Hurricanes would play the last 6 plus minutes tentatively but ultimately survive and reach overtime.
The Hurricanes lost the opening face-off and spent much of the front part of overtime in a precarious situation trying to keep Ovechkin from scoring his fourth to end the game. Svechnikov who was part of a coverage break down in the last overtime loss first defended an Ovechkin rush one-on-one and later won possession of the puck when he pick-pocketed a Caps player. Next the Hurricanes had possession of the puck for an extended period of time. The Canes were not able to score but did draw a penalty to earn a power play for the last 1:36 overtime. The Hurricanes worked the puck around really had only a medium grade Faulk shot and an Aho miss to show for it.
The Hurricanes would lose the skills competition 2-1 in six rounds with Kuokkanen, Slavin, Di Giuseppe, Williams and McGinn failing and Hamilton scoring in the middle. Curiously absent in the shootout was Sebastian Aho.
As I said at the outset, picking up one point against the Capitals in the second half of a back-to-back with the #3 goalie in net is not horrid. But the Canes had a chance for and needed more which makes it a disappointing outcome.
Player and other notes
1) Sebastian Aho
He is at his best when his speed is at a higher gear and he is attacking in straight lines with the puck on his stick. He played much of Friday’s game like he was shot out of a cannon. The assist on the Martinook goal at the outset was more fortuitous than skilled, but he used it as a launching pad to be a going concern offensively all night. With the Hurricanes struggling to score at times, the team could desperately use a stretch where Aho is firing on all cylinders and leading the way offensively.
2) The power play — good but with a big missed opportunity
The power mostly did its job in scoring two goals to run the Hurricanes out to a three-goal lead. The power added another on the Williams gift goal for a solid three for six. All in all, the night was a positive based on that alone. That said, the team’s inability to capitalize on a golden opportunity with 1:36 of 4-on-3 power play time in overtime was (at least one of) the difference between one point and two.
3) Jordan Martinook
He faded into the background a bit behind the big nights by the skill players, but I really thought Martinook played a huge role in setting a different tone at the start. He skated like his hair was on fire and engaged the puck whenever possible on each of his early shifts, and I think others followed his lead.
4) Good continuation game from Andrei Svechnikov
He was not as dominant or productive on the score sheet as Thursday, but Friday was still a strong game and good continuation for Svechnikov. What stands out most to me about his recent play is his propensity to try to drive to the net with the puck on his stick. He did that only on rare occasions early in the season, but is looking increasingly comfortable and determined in that power forward role. The 22:33 of ice time that he logged shows Brind’Amour’s growing confidence in his play.
5) Scott Darling
Give him credit for battling and also giving his team a chance in the shootout, but his issues were still on display. His rebound control was suspect throughout the game, and Ovechkin no doubt had a scouting report to shoot high despite Darling’s size expecting him to guess and go down early exposing the top half of the net which is where Ovechkin finished. Pair that with three posts that helped keep the Caps total at five goals, and Darling did nothing to change his standing from being an emergency #3 on the depth chart.
6) Slavin/Pesce
After a ‘meh’ night with the rest of the team on Thursday, I thought Slavin and Pesce were particularly strong on Friday. Slavin in particular was really good defending with his stick and defusing multiple potentially dangerous situations.
7) Overthinking the shootout?
When asked about his choices for the shootout after the game, Brind’Amour talked about how the team did shootout drills regularly and that his choices were based on those results. So choosing shooters based on practice results has merit. That said, I just do not see how you do not give Sebastian Aho a chance to win that game as your best forward and after a four-point night when he played incredibly well.
Next up for the team is another fairly quick turnaround with a 1pm matinee on Sunday at PNC Arena against the Arizona Coyotes.
Go Canes!
At least the game was a lot of fun to watch. I can’t ask more than that from this team.
RBA did everything he could to make sure we lost in the shootout, and he succeeded.
I can see Slaven out there and Hamilton showed off a slick move, but the rest of the shooters make zero sense to me.
Where is Aho, TT, Svech, I was waiting for Trip to be called to the ice to be the next shooter.
I understand that hockey is a fast game and referee mistakes happen. I think bad break is a severe understatement. Hamilton was tackeled. He was not in position of the puck and the referees were standing right there. That is down right imcompotence. There has to be accountability for the refs. When I saw that happen I felt for sure the goal would be waived off and that we would be on the power play. How they allowed that goal is amazing. It was a fun game to watch but that call was unacceptable. We will never see it but there has to be accountability for that. It totally altered the game. I do not see incedental contact when you are defending a play.
Our guys never gave up. I hope we do not see darling on the ice again in a canes uniform. OV is great but you have to stop some of them. 24 for 29. This is not one game, it is normal. I see no way he is not bought out at the end of the season.
The Canes started to give the puck up when the Caps started banging – especially the d-men. The Caps hit with good second player support, who pick up the loose pucks or errant passes and quickly transition to offense. As with most teams, the Canes d plays better when the forwards forecheck effectively and the d can play from the red line in. If they’re chasing pucks back in their own end then getting pummeled, things don’t work out so well. That’s not a new philosophy or only applies to the Canes, but the Caps are one of those “heavy” teams (the latest moniker to go viral) that can do it effectively and then make you pay the price with a goal. I thought the Caps carried play through much of the game – even while they were getting behind 4-1 and IMOP, the Canes were lucky to grab a point. Make no mistake, the Caps are very, very good but this was another example of not taking advantage of the opportunities presented.
“The power play-good but…” Matt! Come on. How many PP goals did we score against the Stanley Cup champions?
I think the positives far outweighed the negatives in that game. We don’t usually see Fishy and Turbo on the PK. And we don’t usually see us scoring a shorty. I hope to see more of that PK combo.
I disagree with the criticism that Martinook disappeared after he scored in the opening minute. He was buzzing around the Caps net for several minutes after that. A lesser goalkeeper would have yielded at least one more. After that, he didn’t disappear, he just didn’t dominate.
I will let the many other criticisms of my beloved Canes go for now. Instead, I want to emphasize some positives.
1) Martinook’s and Willy’s goals were the result of goalkeeper forced errors. We forced those errors through aggressive fore checking.
2) Fogele is back.
3) Phil d and McGinn are back.
4) How many power play goals did we score?
5) The Stanley Cup champions resorted to their heavy game and while we had no answer for it, we were not deterred.
My beloved Canes have courage and character. Svetch got nailed from behind by Wilson. He got up and played on.
The game did demonstrate a weakness in our lineup. We need some size and strength and grit. Staal is strong and big. He is a key player. But he has no grit. Ferland has grit and can score. He is strong, but lacks size. The same is true for Martinook.
Hamilton is big, but he is soft. Cajkovsky would not have been as easily moved as Hamilton was last night. Milan Lucic would have been a great match for Ovi and Wilson. We can score. We need someone who will make the enemy’s focus switch away from our scorers.
Unless you are purposely blind, last night offers abundant proof of our real need.
I did not mean to suggest that we substitute Caj for Dougie. Rather, Caj as Dougie’s partner. Caj would have been busy clearing away any enemy net front presence and might have prevented one or more of the Caps goals last night.
To complement Caj, we need a big strong and gritty forward. Lucic always comes to mind when I think about that. Archibald from Vancouver would do nicely. There are several forwards in the NHL who would fill the bill nicely. I’d be willing to bet we could find someone in our system, the KHL or elsewhere in Europe.The asking price for such a player would not be dear.
All we need to do is for someone in management to see the obvious and commit to doing something about it.
Last night was a TV viewing for me – and as keyed as I was when we were up 4-1, I was disappointed when the Caps came back – and utterly dumbfounded by the selection for shoot-out. Like you, Matt, I think the 4 on 3 in OT was a gift but one we didn’t want to unwrap. Nevermind not scoring, we didn’t seem to take advantage of it.
Ovechkin – hats off (literally) to him. Role time forward 5-7 years and S(vech)=O(vech) (see what I did there? 😀 ).Was the interference on Hamilton something that could have been challenged? I don’t know that rule.
I am not going to criticize Darling – Holtby was no better (or just as good).
Svech got 20+ minutes on ice – 3 hits. Maybe it is time to put him on Aho’s line with Turbo. Could that be an elite scoring line with Svech also providing some physicality (Aho/Turbo play well with a physical presence – Ferland, Martinook, Zykov – on the left wing, but then we have only seen them on ice with a physical left wing). I don’t think RBA trusts Svech’s defense enough to put him there though.
I didn’t like where Kuokkanen was slotted but he got decent ice time with his PP minutes.
I liked Martinook’s game – he ended up with 3 solid hits himself and he set the tone early. His goal with an Aho assist was a positive for Aho’s energy.
Did RBA really say that the shootout is for the fans only and that he didn’t give much thought to who he sent out. Doesn’t that point count just as much in the standings.
I love Aho’s obvious disappointment in the locker room afterwards. I disliked JW’s almost smarmy sounding “well if I had made my SO goal we would be having a different conversation”. I want the player wearing the loss on his sleeve rather than the player shrugging and explaining it off.