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Hot Holtby not enough to Help Caps - CLB PP |
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The Washington Capitals failed to win three games in a row as they drop a 2-1 decision to Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night. In a game featuring Washington’s best power play in the league against a Columbus team coming in as the worst power play team it was the Blue Jackets who took advantage and finished with 2 power play goals in three opportunities. The Caps did score on the power play but left a potential win on the table by missing on 4 other opportunities finishing 1 for 5. They are now just 2 for 11 in the last two games.
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was excellent in goal for Columbus making 32 saves as he was stoning Capitals shooters all night. The Capitals did not get many second chance shots however as Columbus did a great job of limiting tight shots and clearing rebound opportunities.
Braden Holtby was also stellar in the pipes as he kept the Capitals in the game especially in the 2nd period. He made 34 saves on 36 shots as he continues his hot play of late. Over his last 5 starts, the Saskatchewan native has a .929 SV% as he is doing his part to help the Caps find consistency.
With John Carlson ( Brooks Orpik still out) scratched, the Caps blueline got a lot younger as Jonas Seigenthaler, recalled from Hershey, got his first NHL start. Three of the Caps starting defenceman had a total of less than 300 games played. Seigenthaler played well in 12:16 of ice and registering three hits and although he had 3 turnovers he showed he may be be able to substitute in. Matt Niskanen led all Caps in icetime with 28:29 as he played both power play and penalty kill to help fill the void in Carlson’s absence.
Columbus came out hot in the 1st five minutes and hit a post 16 seconds in. But the Capitals then started to take control after a shotless power play and were outshooting Columbus 14-5 at one point.
Referee Brad Meier took an ugly spill in the corner with 12 minutes left in the period and had to leave the game. 2nd ref Tom Chmielewski had to finish the period on his own.
With just under five minutes remaining the Jackets got their first power play and cashed in to make it 1-0 when Oliver Bjorkstrand banged in a nifty pass from Nick Foligno after 53 seconds of zone time. Thought Holtby went down really early as he didn’t read the Foligno pass well, but overall he’s played great so won’t read too much into that. Though down 1-0 the Capitals out attempted Columbus 29-14 and finished with a 15-9 shots goal advantage. Columbus was the more aggressive team throwing 12 hits to the Caps 2.
The 2nd period saw the Jackets start to take over some play as they out shot the Caps 16-10 in the frame but saw the Capitals take advantage of their 2nd power play as Matt Niskanen buried a one timer off a pass from Nicklas Backstrom at 12:07 to make it 1-1. It was the steady defensmen’s 3rd of the year as he took a page out of John Carlson’s notebook with the heavy shot high.
The Capitals could not however take the lead on their 3rd PP at 11:08 but did generate a couple good chances.
The 3rd saw the Jackets come out hot as they had the first two periods but Holtby was strong making some key saves to give the Capitals skaters more time to try and get the lead. Dmitry Orlov took a roughing penalty at 4:04 and the Jackets pounced on the opportunity and made it 2-1 on an Anthony Duclair goal to give them their 2nd PP goal of the game. Matt Niskanen had lost his stick on the play and could not box out the stick of Duclair as the puck came off the boards and the newly acquired Duclair notched his 7th. He was signed as a UFA to a one year $650,000 deal over the summer and is paying dividends for Columbus with 10 points so far.
The Capitals had two more chances on their PP, which was tops in the league at home and overall coming in, but failed to find a way to tie the game as Bobrovsky continued his strong play earning him 1st star honors. Braden Holtby finished 2nd star as he and Bobrovsky looked like former Vezina winners they are.
The win puts Columbus into 1st place in the Metro with 19 points with the Caps in 3rd spot two points back with a game in hand.
Andre Burakovsky continued his Jekyll and Hyde routine as the winger still looks lost at times in his own end. When 65 isn't scoring there isn’t a whole lot going on unfortunately and he only saw 6:45 of ice in the game. Look for the Burakovsky rumors to continue to swirl.
Washington will look to start another winning streak against the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday. Note the early start in Washington at 5PM EST. Of note, the Capitals may not want to get any PP’s against the desert dogs as Arizona has registered 9 short handed goals so far. That’s right…. 9 goals killing penalties in 14 games. Brad Richardson and Michael Grabner have 3 short handed goals each.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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