The Washington Capitals played well visiting the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night, but playing well doesn’t guarantee goals.
Star power did not factor into first period scoring. Minny’s Jon Merrill scored first, his second of the season and which Charlie Lindgren really oughtta have stopped. A similarly unlikely scorer followed: Matt Roy with his third goal of the season at the end of a great forecheck. Before the first period was up, ex-Wildboy Brandon Duhaime burned his old barn with a net-front scramble after some strong forechecking.
The Caps controlled the second period but couldn’t make any plays, thus the only goals were Wild ones: Freddy Gaudreau getting the last touch on Matt Boldy’s power-play shot, then Boldy himself scoring a backbreaker with seven seconds left in the middle frame.
The Caps couldn’t get the equalizer in the third period. Gaudreau got an empty-netter.
Caps lose:
- The Caps were on the correct side of the puck on almost every shift, but finishing was nowhere to be found (outside Roy and Duhaime, for whatever reason, those two snipers). We have to expect this though. The 2024-25 Capitals are the hottest shooting team in this era of hockey – 11.4 percent during five-on-five play – far ahead of the notorious 2013 Leafs at 10.5 percent. The Caps were overdue for a goal recession.
- So it was a bit of a bonus when one of those rare goals survived a coach’s challenge for goalie interference. Brandon Duhaime, who played 193 games for Minnesota, beat goalie Filip Gustavsson, but he did so as Nic Dowd grazed Gus ever so gingerly. Minnesota video coaches simply aren’t on the level of Washington video coaches. It was a good goal.
- The other goalie, Charlie Lindgren, played 0 games for Minnesota, but he was born in Lakeville, which is a real place, I checked – not the setting of a CBS hourlong drama from 1997. Lindgren got smoked on the Merrill wristshot goal, but what can any mortal do when facing that 33-year-old scoring dynamo who, with two goals, is now halfway to tying his career best.
- The Caps did nothing with two power plays. That makes ten games without a single power-play goal. Their last came on March 5, against the Rangers. They gotta do something. Unlike the rest of play, it’s not just bad percentages there – they are not getting volume anymore.
- Alex Ovechkin did not score, but you knew that. Though the Caps had the puck a ton, Ovi only had a couple good looks – the best coming in the third period. But, y’all: it’s not going to happen every single game. That’s beyond reason.
The Caps have lost two games in a row for the first time since a three-game slide end on March 1 (Flames, Blues, Lightning). With the rest of the division self-destructing like a leaky Signal group chat, I’m not worried. Win the division, win the conference, get Ovi the record, get the PP fixed, and get to game 83 healthy. That’s all that matters.
On Sunday the Sabres come to town. They’re bottom 10 in goaltending, possession, power play, and penalty kill. While Ovi’s on the hunt. They’re calling it the most powerful trap game in history.
