The Washington Capitals were shut out 4-0 by the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 on Saturday night. While the effort was the first full-team shutout of the second-round series, the Capitals have been without a goal from captain Alex Ovechkin in all three games.
Ovechkin came into the series against Carolina as the team’s leading playoff goal scorer with four goals in five games against the Montreal Canadiens. To improve their chances of moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Caps need to get the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer and their whole first line back to more of their first-round form.
“I mean, probably last night is their best game,” Caps head coach Spencer Carbery said Sunday. “They get the one chance off the face-off on the back door. [Ovechkin] gets a couple at the net front. I think overall, just his line – Stromer’s line relies a lot on entries and creating off of entries. And you’re just not going to get very many of those against the Carolina Hurricanes with their gap control and the length and the size of their D.
“So they have to really, really work in the offensive zone on the forecheck, create off of a face-off play, whatever it might be. You’re going to have to beat someone. And that’s hard for anyone. So they just have to continue to work. It’s not going to be perfect every night.”
While the line didn’t create any offense on the scoresheet in Game 3, they had one of their better games of the playoffs from a pure process perspective in the loss. Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour targeted the line with his own top line centered by Sebastian Aho, and the Capitals dominated the matchup.
In 7:03 of five-on-five ice time with Ovechkin and Carolina’s first-line left wing Andrei Svechnikov on the ice, the Caps saw positive differentials in shot attempts (+4), scoring chances (+6), and high-danger chances (+4). The Hurricanes did not create a single scoring chance or high-danger chance during those shifts.
Ovechkin alone recorded 0.76 individual expected goals at five-on-five, the highest mark in the game. The top skater on the Hurricanes’ side, former Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov, only recorded 0.23 individual expected goals.
“In these series, in these games, you have one game where you make a difference offensively, and it could be the difference in the series,” Carbery continued. “And so that’s the mindset that I think those guys need to have, and will have, is that you can change a series in one game with a huge offensive output.
“And so for Alex and Dylan, that’s what they’re trying to do, is have a positive impact offensively, five-on-five. ‘How can we maybe create one or two goals?’ But then they even go a step before that, ‘How do we create some O-zone time, a couple chances, a couple shot attempts,’ and that’s what they’re focused on.”
Ovechkin and Strome have played with two different final complements to their line in the playoffs. They went through all five games against the Canadiens and Game 1 against the Hurricanes with Anthony Beauvillier on their right wing. After a 2-1 overtime loss in Game 1, where the Canes thoroughly dominated the Caps at even strength, Carbery went back to Aliaksei Protas with Ovechkin and Strome for Games 2 and 3.
The second-year bench boss admits that the line juggling may not be over after the club fell behind 2-1 in the series on Saturday. However, he knows to be wary of upsetting too much of the chemistry that the Capitals formed throughout the regular season.
“I’m always looking at ways to move some things around,” Carbery said. “The tricky part of that is those guys have been together all year long, essentially. And so, tinkering with things this time of year, you have to be careful. You want to make adjustments but don’t want to go overboard to do something the group is completely uncomfortable with and haven’t utilized through 90-whatever games we’ve played this year.”
Protas has yet to record a single five-on-five shot attempt playing with Ovechkin and Strome through two games of the Carolina series. Meanwhile, Beauvillier does not have a point in his last four games after starting the playoffs on a four-game point streak.
The Capitals will hold an optional morning skate ahead of Game 4 on Monday, but any indications of line changes will likely come during warmups shortly before the game begins. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm.
