Two games into the Dale Hunter era, the Capitals are still working on the nuances of a new system. Hockey is hockey, players and coaches have said all week, but results are nice, too. And so far Washington has come up empty in that area.
Chris Kunitz scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, a shot from the right wing that slipped through goalie Tomas Vokoun, and the Pittsburgh Penguins held on for a 2-1 victory over the Caps at Verizon Center on Thursday night.
No one was handing out merit badges after Hunter’s second game as coach since taking over for the fired Bruce Boudreau. Washington (12-11-1, 25 points) tied the game early in the second period on a pretty backhand shot by leading-goal scorer Jason Chimera. But they managed just two shots on goal in the third period and never had a chance to push for the tying goal in the final 90 seconds even after Vokoun was pulled for the extra attacker.
This is a process, for sure. But in the midst of a 5-11-1 stretch, Washington just needs a win — any win — to rebuild its confidence. How long can subtle improvements be considered enough?
“It depends on how the games are going. If we start losing games 4-0, 4-1 or 5-1, then maybe you start [questioning],” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “But 2-1 [loss to St. Louis], 2-1 [loss to Pittsburgh] and we should have scored a few more goals. We can score more than one goal a game. … I thought we were better than we were last game.”
One major issue was putting just two shots on Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the third period. That won’t be good enough going forward. But Washington is also transitioning to a counter-attacking style. They generated the necessary turnovers against the Penguins. They didn’t generate the goals.
“It’s pretty disappointing when you lose that kind of game,” Caps captain Alex Ovechkin said. “We just didn’t score on the chances we had. We hit the post. I missed an empty net, and Fleury made a couple great saves.”
Nicklas Backstrom was the player who hit the post, sending a shot that appeared to catch the nob of Fleury’s stick and then ring the crossbar. Craig Adams had put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0 at 5:21 of the first period when he was all alone at the left post to tap home a pass from teammate Arron Asham. Chimera recorded his 10th goal at 1:20 of the second, roofing a backhand past Fleury. But it wasn’t enough.
“It can’t be down the line,” Chimera said of his team’s adjustments. “It’s got to be now. We got to get people stepping up and scoring some goals, doing the little things. It was a good game overall. They had a lot of shots, but a lot were from the outside. It’s a tough way to lose, but we give that kind of effort, it’ll get better.”
