After a 6-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery gave a pretty good summary of what’s been plaguing the Caps early this season:
“Every mistake we make is in the back of our net.”
If you want to understand what he meant by that, last night’s game gave you a pretty good demonstration. The Caps tested Leafs goalie Joseph Woll early and often to the tune of 37 shots on goal. He turned away 36, while the Leafs were able to pierce Darcy Kuemper for 4 in a game that was, as others were early this season, looking pretty good for Washington right up until it wasn’t.
Three Takeaways
- Ovechkin would be at 830 goals right now if he stopped going to the backhand on breakaways and penalty shots.
- That gripe aside, it was nice to see him return to form after concerns he forgot how to play hockey over the summer.
- This is gonna sound ad nauseam, but the Caps have been playing much better than their record, and some of the final scores contributing to said record, would suggest. Last night dropped their PDO to 0.945, making them the second unluckiest team in the league behind the Calgary Flames; the only team they’ve been able to beat. Everything suggests that more goals (and theoretically, wins) should be on the way. Tonight would be a pretty good time for that to start happening.