Plus: The Caps, who were down their best defensive forward and defensemen (Dowd and Fehervary), went into Tampa’s barn and stopped all four Lightning power play attempts. That’s great work by the boys.
Minus: There a handful you can think of but blowing a 3-1 lead early in the third is always not fun. There were some way to avoid those goals which makes it hurt even more.
Key Moment: There were a couple key moments, mainly Wilson’s hit and Tampa scoring two quick goals in the third period, but losing Oshie halfway through the third might be the biggest. You have to think the Caps thought of him as they battled the rest of the game and took home the win.
Caps Player of the Game: Wilson has had a rough season with injury and he hasn’t been putting up the points. Tonight’s game was arguably his best in awhile. He was very physical, flying around and hitting everything he could see. His monster hit forced the turnover to get the Caps first goal. He got a much needed assist on it as well.
Final Thoughts: It felt like Caps were kind of playing with fire the whole game and it eventually kind of buried them. They took too many mistakes to a highly offensively skilled team. Funny thing is it wasn’t the Lightning top players lighting the lamp.
One thing you can’t fault the Caps on lately is they fight and they fight hard. They are losing guys left and right it seems but they aren’t letting it get to them. It will be interesting to see how the team goes forward without Oshie.