Following the Washington Capitals first losing streak of the season, the Caps returned home Wednesday to start a five-game homestand against the Montreal Canadiens.
It wasn’t pretty. The Caps made many of the same mistakes head coach Spencer Carbery dissected postgame during the two-game skid. Nevertheless, the Capitals took a 5-4 win to move to 3-1 at home on the season and 4-3 on the season.
Capitals win with less than A game
Carbery said he was pleased with the third period against Montreal. Meanwhile, the team was very inconsistent for first 40 minutes.
“We just got finished with probably our busiest stretch, I think in the first couple of months of the season,” he said. “Phenomenal third period I thought you know the first two had some good parts, some not so good parts, but the third period was arguably one of the best periods we’ve played all year long.”
The game also featured the first head-to-head game between Lane and Cole Hutson, with each brother getting on the scoresheet early. Cole did it first. He assisted on a Jordan Kyrou goal in the first period. Subsequently, Lane netted a goal against Charlie Lindgren just over three minutes later. Lane added a third period assist to take the head-to-head tally. Nevertheless, Cole’s Capitals won the war.
It is just the second time in NHL history two brothers skating as defensemen each had points in the first game against each other, the first being Quinn and Luke Hughes in December 2023.
Notably, Kyrou had his first multiple-point game for the Capitals. He scored his second goal of the year just two seconds after a Montreal penalty expired. The tally came 7:56 into the contest. He then added an assist as Ivan Miroshnichenko scored on a power play with just 26 seconds left in the first period.
Tuch-ed home a shorthanded goal
Alex Tuch put the Capitals in front with a short-handed goal 6:16 into the second period. He looked off Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes and fired the puck into the net for Washington’s first shorthanded goal of the season.
”I knew where I wanted to shoot,” Tuch said afterwards. “I’m more looking to see where the defenseman is. So I make sure I get that pluck through without it getting blocked.”
The downside: Team D was still leaky
On the flip side, Washington’s defensive coverage had major breakdowns, with defensemen out of position. Josh Anderson was the prime beneficiary, scoring a pair of goals on the night for Montreal.
Fortunately for the Capitals, Justin Holl scored in his second straight game, putting a floater through traffic and beating Dobes with 7:31 left in regulation for the tally in his second game after being recalled from Hershey.
”Those forwards out there were able to grind, get a good O-zone shift going and [Ilya Protas] able to get it up to me up top and just try to get it through and I think it must have been in traffic and found its way in,” Holl said.
Tuch’s insurance goal with 2:55 remaining ended up being the game-winner after Montreal pulled within one just ovet a minute later, but could get no closer.
Charlie Lindgren made just his second start of the season. He earned his first win. Along the way, the goalie outperformed his stat line. The Habs peppered Lindgren with legitimate scoring chances. The goalie made some nice saves. He did his part despite a pedestrian stat line (four goals on 25 shots).
“You wanna get your first [win] out of the way, you know, fairly early,” Lindgren said. “So, you know, game 2, you know, which obviously could have got in game 1 … we’ll take it.”
What’s next: Devils come to town
Washington gets four more tilts at home before hitting the road. The New Jersey Devils visit on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the sloppy play at times, the Capitals seem to be back back on the right track.
”Having a couple tough games and going into this game with the mentality of wanting to come in and make this a hard building to play in, I think is huge going forward. We’re gonna continue to rely on our fans in this building,” Tuch said.
“Try to string some wins at home. You guys are only a couple weeks of the season, only seven games. You feel like you’re still kind of finding the way you want to go. You know how you want to play, but getting to it (is the trick).”
