We will find out soon enough if Capitals goalie Tomas Vokoun makes his fourth straight start when his team faces the Winnipeg Jets tonight at MTS Centre. Seems like a good time to get Michal Neuvirth some work because Vokoun is struggling. His .906 save percentage ranks 25th in the NHL. He has a 2.81 goals-against average. That’s not good enough for a team struggling to score at even strength and Vokoun knows it. He was pulled after the second period in an eventual 5-1 loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
“I play good first nine games and ever since then I’ve been really up and down and obviously not happy with the way I’ve been playing,” Vokoun told reporters after Wednesday’s practice at Kettler Iceplex. “Last night was an outrage. It’s not good enough. It’s disappointing for me. I don’t think I give up as many soft goals in a month here that I give up in three years.”
Vokoun also said he prides himself on not allowing first-shot goals. Rebound control is important, but sometimes players get to loose pucks. Tips are hard for any goalie to stop. But shots from bad angles or simple wristers slipping past? That can’t happen any time – especially not now given the fragile state of a team less than three weeks removed from its coach getting fired and sitting in 12th place in the Eastern Conference.
“For whatever reason I don’t have that comfort level I have in past years. And it shows,” Vokoun said. “Some of the goals I would put in a terrible column. They’re tough goals on the team when we’re not exactly the most confident right now.”
But several Caps players insisted Wednesday that they need to get Vokoun some help. If he’s letting in a soft goal there is usually a defensive-zone breakdown somewhere that forced him to make a save off the rush in the first place. Scott Hartnell’s deflating goal in the first period on Tuesday was in part because of 1) a faulty line change – Troy Brouwer went off and Alex Semin jumped onto the ice, but far too slowly to prevent Hartnell from pushing into the open space 2) some shoddy work in the neutral zone as Cody Eakin pressured too high and allowed Hartnell to spin and zip past him and take advantage of that opening caused by the line change and 3) the puck may have clipped defenseman Dennis Wideman’s stick on the way towards Vokoun.
Not an issue on that particular play, but it would help if Washington would win some more battles in front of Vokoun, too. The culprits there? Mathieu Perreault didn’t get to Jody Shelly cruising in front on defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon’s goal in the second period. Shelly didn’t catch the puck. Didn’t matter, though, because Perreault himself tipped it past Vokoun. Later, Marcus Johansson failed to finish off a check behind the net on Wayne Simmonds, who stayed on his feet, circled the goal and beat Johansson to a spot at the doorstep left of Vokoun for a tip-in. On Jakub Voracek’s third period goal, Perreault was in the area, but defenseman John Erskine had the body in front.
“It’s our job to lift up sticks,” Caps coach Dale Hunter said. “We had three tipped goals [against the Flyers], which is unheard of. That really cost us the game.”
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