{"id":410122,"date":"2026-01-16T04:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/410122\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T04:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:09:08","slug":"sliced-up-by-san-jose-in-the-second-period-sharks-beat-capitals-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/410122\/","title":{"rendered":"Sliced up by San Jose in the second period: Sharks beat Capitals 3-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Capitals
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: kurly from #crashers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Washington Capitals hosted the surging San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena on Thursday night. The Caps came into the game looking to string two wins together for the first time since they last played the Sharks on December 3.<\/p>\n

Dylan Strome benefited from a good bounce on the power play to put the Capitals up 1-0 in the second period. Hoo-boy, did things go poorly from there. Zack Ostapchuk, Collin Graf, and Pavol Regenda all scored within a three-minute stretch to put the Sharks up by two goals. A dazzling individual effort from Ryan Leonard brought the Caps back within one.<\/p>\n

Sharks beat Capitals 3-2.<\/p>\n

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The Capitals weren\u2019t \u201cbad\u201d in the first period, but they certainly weren\u2019t good either. They managed just five shots on goal against one of the worst defensive teams in the league and played the back half of the period at what felt like a leisurely pace. You can do that when you\u2019re up four goals in a game. You should not do that when the game is scoreless.
\nIt is wild how awful the Sharks would be without Macklin Celebrini. In my opinion, if they somehow make the playoffs, he should totally win the Hart Trophy as league MVP. Without him, they\u2019re picking first overall again this summer.
\nVincent Iorio made a few really strong defensive plays early on in tonight\u2019s game. Happy to see him still getting a chance with the Sharks. Hopefully, he can find a long-term home there.<\/p>\n

That second period might be the worst the Capitals have looked since Spencer Carbery took over. I understand there are really important guys out injured right now, but what is the excuse for the level of urgency this team has shown lately? They had nine total shots on goal after 40 minutes. In the second, the Sharks finished up 25-7 in shot attempts, 12-4 in shots, 12-3 in scoring chances, and 5-1 in high-danger chances.
\nA lot of these recent problems are not so \u201crecent\u201d anymore, as this has gone on for what feels like two months at this point. You know a good way to spark urgency and care within a roster? Make sure A LOT of the roster knows that their spots on the club are not permanent. I don\u2019t just mean just looking to make trades there, either, as the Hershey Bears have more than a few young faces I\u2019m sure would love to play in the NHL.
\nSpeaking of which, Ilya Protas was named to the 2026 AHL All-Star Game earlier this afternoon<\/a>. Maybe it\u2019s time to stop \u201covercooking\u201d him in Hershey and see if he can help with whatever mess the Capitals\u2019 current center depth is.
\nThe power play scored a goal, but it was due to sheer luck and had nothing to do with the overall strategy or setup. Still looked awful otherwise.<\/p>\n

The push from the Capitals in the third was good again, but the whole playing one period every game is unacceptable. I\u2019m not exactly saying anything there that you all don\u2019t know, though.
\nTremendous goal from Ryan Leonard, giving him 10 on the season. I can\u2019t wait until he has a more regular center in this team\u2019s top six.
\nYou can\u2019t tell me that someone like Ivan Miroshnichenko or Andrew Cristall wouldn\u2019t be a better option right now to play the third-line and second-unit power-play ice time that Brett Leason has the past two games. Leason was literally not on this team until like Halloween. What are we doing here, chat?<\/p>\n

The Capitals will next host the Florida Panthers on Saturday night before heading out on a long, six-game road trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcf8: kurly from #crashers The Washington Capitals hosted the surging San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-410122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}