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After a one-year absence, the Washington Capitals did not have the start they were envisioning in their return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they hosted the New York Islanders in Game One.
“Our execution needs to change…our compete and our battle level weren’t as high as they needed to be,” Capitals left winger Troy Brouwer said following Wednesday’s loss.
A bad pass from Brouwer that ended up in left winger Marcus Johansson’s skate led to a turnover that put the Islanders up 1-0. New York center Brock Nelson scored the goal just 6:06 into the game.
Capitals’ goaltender Braden Holtby will likely be seeing that shot in his nightmares. It was a simple wrist shot from the right wing that he attempted to snap with his glove and simply missed.
“It was a little bit of an unlucky bounce and it came back the other way in our net,” Brouwer said about the play. “It’s not how we wanted to start the series.”
“We didn’t manage the puck very well. The first goal was a good example of that,” Washington defenseman Brooks Orpik said.
With less than a minute to go in the first period, Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak played the puck behind his net attempting to get the puck to a defenseman. Capitals center Brooks Laich intercepted the pass and turned and fired one to Johansson who sent his shot past Halak’s blocker.
Center Nicklas Backstrom won seven of eight face-offs in the first period (14 of 20 in the game). Center Michael Latta won all four of his face-offs in the first 20 minutes of play as well (seven of nine total).
Buy Latta’s first face-off-loss of the game became a pretty costly one.
Islanders center John Tavares cleanly won that faceoff and got it to teammate Ryan Strome who sent a missile-of-a-shot over Holtby’s right shoulder. The goal unfolded so quickly nobody even noticed it initially. A few seconds later, noticeable groans filled the Verizon Center as the Islanders took the lead once again, at 2-1.
“[Capitals center] Fehrsie (Eric Fehr) went to go get some equipment fixed and so we went with the right draw,” Caps Head Coach Barry Trotz said about the Islanders second goal. “We were limited.”
New York extended their lead to 3-1 later in the second period when left winger Josh Bailey’s shot off a fantastic Holtby save trickled in over the goal line.
From there, Washington attempted a comeback to no avail.
“When we did have a break down, I thought Halak made some great saves,” New York Head Coach Jack Capuano said.
Even at 7:36 into the third period, the Capitals only had one shot on goal since the intermission. They got their second of two power plays on the night with 12:36 remaining in the game and mustered just two shots on goal on that man advantage.
“There was disappointment in a lot of our guys,” Trotz said.
“We aren’t panicking, we aren’t depressed and we didn’t play well,” Laich said. “We need to play better, that’s it.”
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