Avs beat Caps 2-1, Caps stunned by existence of second, third periods

The Washington Capitals missed their leader on Thursday night as they hosted the Colorado Avalanche. Following his example, the Caps disappeared from the back half of this game.

In the first period, Pierre-Luc Dubois got off the shneid with a pretty net-crashing tap-in. The lone goal of the second period was Colorado’s, attributed to Mikko Rantanen, but really just a fluke bounce off Matt Roy’s skate. Miles Wood deflected Cale Makar’s shot in the third to give the Avs the lead.

Caps lose 2-1.

• I did not like Washington’s effort after the first period. That’s been a theme for weeks now. I don’t know how you solve a problem like this, but I know it’s on Spencer Carbery to solve it.
• Pierre-Luc Dubois had generated 6.5 expected goals going into tonight’s game, but only one of his pucks had crossed the goal line. That underperformance made him the second “unluckiest” player in the league behind Zach Hyman. You could say Pierre-Luc was a due boy. But after a great pass from Wilson, PLD made a simple touch to score his second goal of season and start a long journey towards getting paid back by random chance.
• As the Capitals let this game slip away, it fell to Logan Thompson to keep them in it. He faced 13 (!) scoring chances in the second period alone. He was forced to make lights-out saves like this too much:

• The game had a long stoppage in the second period as some glass needed repair. I don’t know what it was like in the arena, but at home we were treated to Craig Laughlin and Joe Beninati vamping for many long minutes. The hosts made a better effort than the Caps did.
• Gonna see Gladiator 2 tomorrow. Let’s see if Ridley Scott still has the stuff. I asked Aileen when she thought “peak Russell Crowe” was and she said maybe one of the two exorcism movies he did over the last couple years. But the correct answer is obviously Master and Commander. Guys rock.
• Connor McMichael had two breakaways inside maybe 90 seconds in the second period, but he wasn’t able to get a real chance off either. I’m not superstitious, but I’m more than a little ‘stitious, so I’m going to say that’s where the game went wrong.
• Colorado winger Logan O’Connor had one shot on goal saved by Logan Thompson. Ivan Ivan played in his 20th career game, but he was denied the opportunity to face Ivan Miroshnichenko, who did not get a sweater tonight. Logan vs Logan but not Ivan Ivan vs Ivan. If the Caps are gonna play one good period, I’m going to goof around about player names; that’s the tradeoff.
• I say something along these lines every year at this time: I’m a cancer survivor, going on twenty years, and without a very special family doctor and extremely good care I probably wouldn’t be writing about this game for you tonight. Cancer, like hockey, is political. To win the fight against cancer, you have to organize for publicly funded research, affordable medical training, and universal access to healthcare. It was never going to be a moonshot – just down-to-earth cooperation. 🌹

Not a good game. I have this awful feeling that Alex Ovechkin’s injury will bring about the end of Washington’s magically high shooting percentage. Connor McMichael getting stumped on two consecutive breakaways feels like that in evidence. This is totally specious. These are just the ramblings of a man who didn’t eat enough because his life partner said tonight was “girl dinner.” I’m running off fumes here. Fumes and nitrates and triscuits. But the Caps don’t have to break down just because Ovechkin broke a bone. They’re still well above average at offense, and they’ll still take over games – as long as they don’t quit them forty minutes early.

Devils come to town on Saturday night. That’ll be another challenge. See you here.