The Caps kicked off their Western Conference road trip with a stinker in St. Louis over the weekend. They decided the best way to follow that up would be with one just as bad, if not worse (although at least they scored tonight).
They achieved this in the most frustrating of ways – not by getting dominated, but by making dumb mistakes and, unfortunately, being the victim of some bad/unlucky bounces, as well. This team is having enough trouble winning games without shooting themselves in the foot, and that’s kind of what last night’s game felt like.
Three Takeaways:
- Good on the Caps for at least making the end of this one a little more exciting than it felt like it would be, as they fell behind 5-1 and then got two quick goals late in the third to give everyone just a glimmer – faint though it may have been – of hope.
- Not sure how many of last night’s goals you could really pin on Darcy Kuemper (…okay definitely the first one by Marcus Johansson), and he did make some excellent saves after that iffy goal. Still, he has now given up at least five goals three separate times since Christmas. It’s been the case for a while but it’s probably safe to say that for now, at least, Kuemper has ceded the starting role to Charlie Lindgren. Just not a great season to this point for Darcy.
- The Caps have scored three power-play goals in their last eight games; all three of those have come off the stick of T.J. Oshie.
They Said It: