When the NY Islanders lost in the shootout to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon, the loser point gained by Tavares' team shoved the Washington Capitals further down the Eastern Conference ladder. The 13th place Caps (52) enter tonight's must-win game vs. Montreal only two points ahead of the Islanders (50). The Islanders are 6-3-1 in their past ten games and are climbing the Eastern standings in a hurry. Were it not for a garbage no-goal call by the NHL war room on Thomas Vanek's OT GWG, the Isles would be trailing the Caps by only one point right now. Vanek and the Isles got screwed.
Kevin Shattenkirk scored the walk-off shootout winner for the reeling Blues.
Vanek sent this floral bouquet to the NHL for wiping out his OT winner:
"I think it's a terrible call. I don't know if it's who we are. If that's Pittsburgh or a top team, that's maybe a goal. It's just a terrible call. We all know what a kicking motion is."
Nice.
Vanek scored his 20th goal of the season in the first period. His trade value continue to up and up and up. He'll score 30 goals no problems at all this season.
Halak totally butchered the save and he got lucky when the goal was disallowed. Perhaps saved his job in St. Louis.
I digress.
This is it, folks. Adam Oates' last stand. If the Caps lose tonight to the Habs, there might be a big bam boom in Washington on Sunday.
The Caps enter tonight's game 0-5-2 in its last 7 games. Their goaltending continues to be a gaping, infected wound. Their goal scoring is in a polar vortex. Ovechkin's 35 goals scored this season has served as lip gloss on the pig that is the Caps' offense. Ovi has sat out th epast two games and the Caps have lost both. There are nothing but third and fourth liners up and down the lineup in Washington and they cannot score.
The Caps lost 2-1 loss to the Devils on the road on Friday night. The loss was the Capitals’ fifth regulation loss in a row. Washington hasn’t lost as many as seven in a row since an eight-game slide from December 2-18, 2010 and it hasn’t dropped five straight in regulation since November 10-21, 2007 when it lost five straight in regulation, a skid that cost then-head coach Glen Hanlon his job. The Caps were outscored 21-9 during that five-game stretch; they’ve been outscored 17-6 during their current run of five straight regulation setbacks.
Playing without captain and league-leading scorer Alex Ovechkin for a second straight game, the Caps were limited to one or zero goals for the sixth time in their last seven games. Washington has scored a grand total of eight goals in its last seven games. Ovechkin has scored three of those goals .
For the first time in a long time, I'm seeing Ovi as a sympathetic figure. He took the game day skate on Saturday morning and will likely play against Montreal. Poor guy can't even rest his aching sore groin. Ovi has the weight of two worlds on his back right now: that of the Caps who are paying his $10 million per year salary, and, that of mother Russia who are counting on Ovechin to lead the Russians to the medal round and perhaps the gold medal game on home ice in Sochi in two weeks.
A loss to Montreal tonight will be yet another punch below the belt for the Caps, who need a #1 goalie in the worst way. Holtby will get the start tonight as Neuvirth lost in Newark on Friday night. It really doesn't matter who the goalie is. Both act like they are distracted by all of the negativity and trade chatter that surrounds them. Their GM George McPhee hasn't found the solution to the crisis of confidence in his team's net. A Caps loss tonight may be the final straw that breaks the back of Caps owner Ted Leonsis.