In last night’s overtime loss to the Sharks, there was very little about the Capitals’ game that would say they deserved to win – but they kept it close all night and were given plenty of chances to take that victory anyway, and simply didn’t.
The play that sealed the deal was an unfortunate penalty taken by Tom Wilson, who was attempting to lift the stick of Macklin Celebrini and instead sent his own stick into Celebrini’s face. Unintentionally, of course (we sure hope, because if not that was an even dumber play than it already was).
Ouch.
With Wilson in the box, the Caps were forced to head back to the penalty kill for the remainder of regulation, and – they hoped – into the start of overtime. Luckily, they did in fact kill off the first part of the penalty and change, making it to the end of regulation and salvaging a point thanks to some stellar work by the penalty killers and Logan Thompson.
They would not be so lucky in the extra frame, where it took about 30 seconds for the Sharks to strike. Nic Dowd comes on to take the faceoff, but is unable to win the draw and San Jose goes to work, passing the puck around the perimeter before getting it to William Eklund in the left circle. Eklund fires the puck on net, it slips through Thompson’s legs, and that’s the ball game.
Pretty decent screen by Martin Fehervary, but that’s still probably a shot Thompson will want back; ultimately in that situation, though, it felt like it was only a matter of time before the Sharks struck.
Let’s check in with Spencer Carbery to see how he felt about that turn of events:
…yup, that about sums it up. Onward.