Capitals head home with momentum gone
Alex Ovechkin’s frustration was obvious Thursday night as the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals prepared to leave Raleigh with their playoff series lead erased and one of their best players injured.
“It’s a wakeup call for all of us,” the Capitals captain said after the Carolina Hurricanes’ 2-1 win at PNC Arena tied the best-of-seven, first-round NHL playoff series at 2-2. “You can’t hope one guy is going to make a save or score a goal. You have to go out there and play your game. If you don’t want to do it, don’t play.”
After coming to Raleigh several days ago with a 2-0 series lead, the Capitals left North Carolina in disarray. They were dominated in a 5-0 Carolina win on Monday before losing a tight game and watching forward T.J. Oshie leave the ice with an upper body injury late in the Hurricanes’ 2-1 win Thursday.
Oshie crashed into the boards and crumpled to the ice with 5:08 remaining in the third period on a play where Carolina’s Warren Foegele was called for boarding.
“He will not be with our team for a while,” Washington coach Todd Reirden said. “He will not be playing anytime soon.”
Reirden said the team will know more about Oshie’s timetable Friday after he is examined further. Oshie is a significant loss for the Capitals. He totaled 25 goals and 29 assists in 69 regular-season games this season and had one goal and one assist in the playoff series.
After Monday’s loss, he was moved from the second line to the first to play with Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in hopes of reviving Washington’s offense. The move paid off when he drew a penalty on Teuvo Teravainen in the second period after getting behind the Carolina defense.
Ovechkin converted on that power-play with a goal that tied the score with 9:25 remaining in the second period.
That period was Washington’s best in the two games played in Raleigh, as the Capitals outshot Carolina 14-9. But it ended with a demoralizing breakdown when Teravainen skated untouched through the middle of the Washington zone to take a pass from Nino Niederreiter and beat goalie Braden Holtby on the glove side 28 seconds before the second intermission.
“That just can’t happen,” said Washington defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler. “Especially before you go to the intermission, you’ve just got to get it out and play simple. But it didn’t happen and they scored.”
Washington couldn’t get the equalizer despite having big opportunities when Oshie drew the penalty against Foegele and Evgeny Kuznetsov had a point-blank shot seconds after the penalty was killed. Petr Mrazek turned away that chance and stopped 48 of the 49 shots he faced in two games in Raleigh, but Ovechkin said the Carolina goalie wasn’t doing anything special.
“He’s a good goalie,” Ovechkin said, “but we have to be better.”
The Capitals have been in difficult playoff situations before, including losing the first two games of the playoffs at home last year and a seven-game win over Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals en route to winning the Stanley Cup. But that doesn’t make it any easier.
“Every playoff series is hard, and that’s what makes you better,” Holtby said. “That’s what’s fun about it, the challenge. So it’s a big challenge to go home on our home ice and play our best game there. It will be a really fun challenge.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2019 at 11:13 PM.