Nashville 3, Caps 0
They may have finished the preseason 5-1, but the Caps feel like there is still plenty of work left to do before the NHL regular season begins for real on Friday night.
“I’m never happy when we lose. And you never want to give them an excuse,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But at the same time it’s training camp and it was probably a good thing that we got our comeuppance today.”
Washington wanted most of all to escape the preseason healthy. That didn’t quite happen. Semyon Varlamov hasn’t played in a preseason game since the first one on Sept. 22 against Columbus. He stopped all 20 shots he faced that night, but an undisclosed injury has kept him out since then. That’s not a good sign for a player that has struggled to stay healthy in his first two seasons.
Mike Green, meanwhile, took a hard shot off his leg in the second period Sunday and skated immediately to the bench. But he returned in time for his next shift. Forward Jason Chimera was later hurt while not even playing. Sitting on the bench, he took an errant puck off the face and was sporting a healthy scratch on his cheek afterwards. But Chimera looked fine after returning to play the third period. Nicklas Backstrom was held out Sunday after blocking a shot in Friday’s preseason win over Columbus, but also should be fine, according to Boudreau.
Green had a rough day against the Predators. On one power play in the second period he had a bad pass that ended a Caps’ scoring threat as they pressured the Predators. That same shift he bobbled a puck at the blueline and watched as Joel Ward jumped on the puck and went in alone for a short-handed goal. In fairness, fellow defenseman Brian Fahey had a puck do the same thing to him a few minutes later at the top of the blueline right in front of the Nashville bench. So a bad patch of ice may have been as responsible as anything.
But there was no sugarcoating a frustrating final effort. Several players admitted they have to be better on Friday when it matters.
“That’s what we’re going to face,” said defenseman Karl Alzner. “Nashville played a great game. Training camp is a tough time. It would have been nice to win every single game in preseason, but at the same time it was good to get a little bit of a wake-up call.”
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