Coming off a dominant first period in Raleigh Friday night, the Washington Capitals had the tables turned on them in Tampa, falling behind just 2.26 into the contest en route to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Lightning for their first loss of the season.
The Capitals controlled Friday’s game early, but grew passive as the game progressed, and that seemed to carry over into this contest. Washington picked it up more in the second, but spotting a solid team a 2-goal lead in their home opener was too much for them to overcome.
”The first put us behind the 8-ball and not nearly good enough to start the game,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “And it ends up costing us 2 points tonight. The second and third were fine. I thought we did some good things in that 40 minutes.”
“We just didn’t match their intensity in the first,” Jakob Chychrun said afterwards. “I just think they had a really strong first period … we just didn’t match that intensity. But it came out in the second better. A little more flight, a little more jump. We were able to get ourselves back into the game.”
While goaltender Charlie Lindgren will be under the microscope early in the season after Clay Stevenson was lost to waivers, he certainly didn’t have a whole lot of help in the first, allowing 2 goals on the first 14 shots. He did keep the score from getting out of hand early, and also made some nice saves to keep Washington within range through the third.
“I thought he was fantastic tonight,” Carbery said. “We gave him that one down Broadway to open up his game, which isn’t fair to him, so we’re down 1-0. He still had to make some big saves in the first period, even just to keep that at 2.
“As the game evened out in the second and third period, just like their guy had to make a few key saves, he matched those and made whatever was forefront really quality saves on his part, so I’m proud of him.”
Justin Sourdif said things could have been a lot worse if not for Lindgren.
“They could have gone up by definitely four goals in the first,” he said. “Chuck made some huge saves for us, kind of kept us in it there. We were able to try and battle back throughout the game.”
Another trend this season has been the penalties, as after the night where they gave up 6 power plays in a row, they added 2 more in the first 23 minutes. Fortunately for them, the penalty kill was strong, bringing them to 8-for-9 on the young season. The bright spot for the Capitals was Sourdif’s nice tip-in goal in the second period, which also yielded Boone Jenner’s first point in a Capitals sweater.
” It’s definitely good for the confidence,” Jenner said. “But two points would have been better. I thought we didn’t come out very strong. It’s tough on a back-to-back. But it’s their home opener. We knew they were going to come out strong. They’re a very good team.”
The Capitals offense was more sporadic, producing just 21 shots, including 9 when down a goal in the third. The game also featured a longtime Capitals defenseman’s first game against his former club, and he picked up his first point in Tampa on the late empty-netter.
Capitals defenseman Matt Roy also left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. Carbery said he would be evaluated back in Washington. After the season-opening two-game road trip, Washington will play 8 of their next 9 games at home, kicking off the home schedule with a visit by the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night in a nationally televised contest.
Considering the quality of opponents, a split isn’t a bad result for Washington, although they have shown both their play at their best and not so great, and need to find a bit more consistency.
