Game #44 Recap: Caps 0 Tampa Bay 3

For the second night in succession the Capitals gave up the first 3 goals to the opposition. On this night, however, there was no push back at all and the Capitals fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0. The Capitals flat start was punctuated with Mike Green picking up a hooking penalty1:09 in the the game. The Capitals were able to kill off the penalty but gave up a goal 40 seconds after it ended. All over the ice the Capitals looked completely out of sync. Alex Ovechkin broke three sticks with 2 coming on surefire scoring chances. Defensively, Tom Poti made his return to the line up but could only play the first period and 1 shift into the second. Needless to say the defensive pairing had no continuity all night and the team was unable or unwilling to play the dump and retrieve style to get back into the game. the team repeatedly turned over the puck at the Tampa blue line and were forced to defend or regroup. In the end, it just didn't look like the Capitals were interested in the game. With that said Seymon Varlomov like Michal Nuevirth the night before was absolutely solid in net. The rookie stopped 35 of 38 shots with 32 coming in the 1st and 2nd periods. I think the team is having issues with so many players being in and out of the line up coupled with the fact they are using so many different players from previous years. They are still getting comfortable with one another and I believe they will continue to gel as the season goes along. So keep the faith and remember that adversity builds character.

Of Note:

• The Capitals suffered their 6th shut out of the year. In their previous 3 seasons they have only been shut out 8 times.
• The Washington power play continues to be dormant, going 0 for 2 this game and have just 1 power play goal in their last 4 games.
• The penalty kill returned form after a night off in Florida. The Caps stopped all 6 Tampa power plays which is a good job by they need to be killing fewer penalties. The Capitals have given the opposition 12 power plays in the last 2 games, that just too many.
• Boyd Gordon was back in the line up for the Capitals. He had missed 11 games due to foot injury.

Official Recap
Game Summary
Event Summary