Coming into last night’s game, the Caps knew they’d be facing a Canadiens team that had twice pushed back on them late in games, making their first two wins of the series much closer than they needed to be – all this despite the Caps being the better team overall. They also knew they’d be heading into a loud, raucous, playoff-starved Bell Centre filled with rabid Habs fans.
Knowing all of these things, and facing a team whose coach willingly chose to make this lineup switch (because hitz or something), you’d think they would have been prepared for a fight from the opening faceoff.
You would have been wrong.
Despite taking an early lead, the Caps really never seemed to get into this one, letting Montreal and their crowd take over early and never really let up (although the Caps did keep it close until about halfway through the third, which is something, considering how bad they looked throughout the evening).
So how did they lose? Not being prepared. Not being ready. Not being smart. Not being able to ramp up to the level Montreal somewhat inexplicably found. Losing battles, losing the special teams game, and eventually losing their starting goaltender to a self-inflicted injury.
It started with a late first-period goal by Alexandre Carrier to tie the game and ended with Alex Newhook adding a sixth on the power play with about 2:30 left in regulation and honestly we, like the Caps, don’t really need to relive any more of it – but hopefully the Caps will learn from it. Burn the tape but remember how it felt to be embarrassed by a team that had no business embarrassing them, and get back to their game tomorrow evening.
No one said it would be easy.