📸: Katie Brown
The Washington Capitals made their way to Music City for a meeting with the Nashville Predators on Sunday night. With a win, the Caps would go 2-0 on their annual Mentors’ Trip, giving their dads and other family members a great couple of road showings.
Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring with his 20th goal of the season on a 5-on-3 power play. Steven Stamkos responded with a power-play tally of his own to tie the game. Cole Smith put the Predators ahead early in the third period, and Roman Josi extended that lead with another power-play goal. Ethen Frank brought the Caps back within one with a power-play marker of his own.
Predators beat Capitals 3-2.
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The Capitals started the game really well, owning most of the puck in the early parts of the first period. However, I thought they didn’t maintain that control as the period went on, and Nashville finished the first frame with more momentum. The bevy of penalties called likely contributed to that uneveness and the 1-1 scoreline after 20 minutes was probably fair.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 20th goal of the season, giving him 20 goals for a 21st consecutive season and passing Ron Francis (20) for the second-most 20-goal seasons in NHL history. He has goals in four straight games and is on pace to score 36 at the season’s end. When he gets hot like this, though, I wouldn’t be shocked to see that pace quickly go back up into the 40s. His shot looks like it has that special sort of weight to it right now.
We need to discuss Brandon Duhaime. In recent weeks, it feels like he’s spending more time in the penalty box than on the ice. He took the penalty that preceded Stamkos’s tying the game in the first period. He now has 16 penalty minutes combined in his last four games. I think the Capitals’ coaching staff might be nearing healthy scratch territory for him, so that he gets the “stay out of the box” message.
The second period was great for the Capitals, but they just couldn’t find a goal to put them in front. A ton of pressure on multiple shifts, two posts hit, and some great goaltending from Charlie Lindgren. The Caps of last season were easily finding those second and third goals, though. This year’s Caps, big-time struggle.
Poor Justin Sourdif cannot catch a break with his face right now. After being bloodied by a practice collision with Connor McMichael earlier this week, the 23-year-old centerman took a puck to the grill in the second period. He immediately departed for the Capitals’ locker room and did not return for the remainder of the game. The Caps ruled him out with an upper-body injury.
Ryan Leonard drew his 20th penalty of the season in the first period. Coming into Sunday, the only NHL players to draw more are Connor McDavid (28), Mikko Rantanen (25), Matthew Schaefer (25), Tim Stutzle (24), Macklin Celebrini (24), Brad Marchand (22), and Nazem Kadri (21). And remember, Leonard missed a couple of weeks due to injury. The 20-year-old rookie also notched his seventh point this month, an assist on Ovechkin’s goal.
With both Tom Wilson and Jakob Chychrun out of the lineup, the Capitals used a first-unit power play that included Ovechkin, Sourdif, Leonard, Dylan Strome, and John Carlson. They looked good early on, but we didn’t get too many looks at it because Sourdif was forced out of the game.
Well, you can’t really start a period worse than the Capitals started the third. They gave up an early goal after a funky bounce and then took two penalties in quick succession. Roman Josi scored with the Predators up two men, and all of a sudden, the Caps were down two and facing another loss to a team they should be beating.
Spencer Carbery played a hunch and put Ethen Frank on the first unit power play in the third period with Sourdif out injured. Frank responded with his eighth goal of the season. It sure feels like Frank has scored some clutch goals this season.
The Capitals are already missing a scoring forward or two when they have Wilson in the lineup. Those problems are exacerbated when he’s out. The standings aren’t looking too kind right now. Do we finally see a move made soon?
The Capitals will now say farewell to their dads and mentors, return home to DC, and host the Montreal Canadiens at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night.