The Washington Capitals lost to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday evening. Duh.<\/p>\n
Parker Kelly<\/a> tipped Cale Makar<\/a>\u2018s shot to give the Avs an early lead. Jakob Chychrun<\/a> (obviously) scored through traffic to tie it after twenty minutes.<\/p>\n Nate MacKinnon did what a Nate MacKinnon does, skill-gapping the Caps to restore Colorado\u2019s lead, which doubled when Victor Olofsson<\/a> nabbed a rebound. Ethen Frank<\/a> returned fire 17 seconds later, with a big assist from Ovechkin.<\/p>\n Cale Makar had a goal overturned in the third, only for Artturi Lehkonen<\/a> to earn it back a couple shifts later. Rasmus Sandin<\/a> fumbled the puck behind the net, giving Nate MacKinnon an easy one.<\/p>\n Caps lose.<\/p>\n Get RMNB ad-free<\/p>\n Support us on Patreon for $5 to hide all ads and get other perks<\/p>\n More Info<\/a><\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a paper calendar, but if I did I\u2019d have had this game circled on it. The Avs are on a haughty points pace \u2013 I think like 130. They\u2019ve lost in regulation on home ice once. The only thing they\u2019re not lights-out elite at is the power play, and MacKinnon scored on that anyway. I\u2019m not saying this was a scheduled loss; I\u2019m just saying my expectations were tempered. That\u2019s a heads-up play by Alex Ovechkin<\/a> for his 22nd assist of the season. I kind of lazily assume Ovechkin regularly has more goals than assists, but it didn\u2019t really happen much until the late 2010s. Given how nice his passing has been this season, I think it\u2019ll be neck-and-neck again. And then who knows about next season. Wink. into the buzzsaw we go #joebsuitofthenight<\/p>\n \u2014 RMNB (@rmnb.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-19T21:09:57.674Z<\/a><\/p>\n The Caps lost the game we expected them to lose. The problem isn\u2019t the loss \u2013 it\u2019s just the one game \u2013 the problem is the expectation, hard-won and well-deserved, that the Caps can\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it. They just can\u2019t compete. They\u2019ve got elite players who are slumping, a core piece on LTIR, middle-six players waiting to break out, depth players who are suddenly not dependable, an acronymed defender who can\u2019t hold the blue line anymore, another monosyllabic defender who has been a mess on the PK.<\/p>\n Their power play is the worst in the league and they haven\u2019t won two games in a row in a month and a half.<\/p>\n They\u2019re not a good hockey team.<\/p>\n And now they\u2019ll ask you to stay up past midnight to watch do whatever it is they think they\u2019re doing as they tour the western conference. The temerity of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals lost to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday evening. Duh. Parker Kelly tipped Cale Makar\u2018s shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-417757","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\/417757","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=417757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Caps got three power plays to start the day. I missed the first one because Sebulba needed a diaper change, and I was told my time was better spent that way. I\u2019m always happy to see the Caps score, but there\u2019s this tinge of sadness if it\u2019s a power-play goal, as it\u2019ll just forestall what the team should have done a couple months ago.
\nJustin Sourdif<\/a> returned from injury. He drew a penalty on his first shift.
\nI was deflated by the Olofsson goal. Ethen Frank \u2013 who had been kind of crummy in his last two appearances \u2013 redeemed the team immediately with his 11th goal. And I want to call out the assist:<\/p>\n
\nFor a while Jakob Chychrun was the only guy who could score on the roster. He did it again today, but he also committed two penalties \u2013 one a double-minor for high-sticking \u2013 and he was on the ice for the Kelly goal.
\nA lot went wrong on the disallowed Makar goal. Strome wiped out, and Protas utterly lost his man, but \u2013 and instead of explaining goalie interference here just imagine me waving my hands around in exasperation. At least it went Washington\u2019s way for once.
\nI mentioned the skill gap above. On separate plays, Nate MacKinnon and Brock Nelson<\/a> both carved the Caps defenders like a honey-baked ham. The Caps just don\u2019t have that star power right now. Given how yipped-out Strome has been lately, I think Frank might be the closest to it right now? Eeek.
\nI try not to complain about refs too often in these recaps, if only because I\u2019d get repetitive. But these refs were silly. The trip on Wedgewood was soft. The hook on Beauvillier was even softer. And the make-up hook on Nelson was basically fraud.
\nYou can\u2019t say any goalie was good if they see five (six?) pucks get past them, but Charlie Lindgren<\/a> at least was busy. Nearly forty saves.
\nHendrix Lapierre<\/a> ice-time check: 7:37. His most ice in ten days! Good for him! Gold star.<\/p>\n