Devils 5, Caps 0
Don’t really know what to tell you after the Caps were demolished by New Jersey at Prudential Center tonight. It was a nightmare from the start – from the lower-body injury to goalie Michal Neuvirth to the late start for rookie Braden Holtby to the missing skates for goalie Semyon Varlamov. Then of course there was the actual play on the ice. Read all the particulars in our game story here, if you dare.
The goalie issue was confusing. It took until after the game before reporters learned for sure Varlamov was in the building and had been recalled from Hershey shortly after the morning skate. With his players on the ice, coach Bruce Boudreau told the media what he believed – that Neuvirth would start. That changed within minutes when Neuvirth left the ice with a lower-body injury. He is listed as day-to-day and Boudreau said he could play against Carolina on Wednesday.
But Varlamov, who couldn’t enter the game until the second period while waiting for his skates to arrive from Hershey, will stay with the team in Raleigh tomorrow just in case. Boudreau said the Caps had to inform game officials and the Devils that Neuvirth would begin the game as the back-up goalie before giving way. But the whole decision-making process sounded odd. Why not just call up Dany Sabourin from Hershey since he could actually play? Washington management didn’t want to use Varlamov and have him tweak his groin injury.
“I don’t know. That’s the decision we made,” Boudreau said. “We didn’t assume that Holtby was going to get hurt and then Varly could have a real good practice with us tomorrow. From what I gather [Neuvirth] is day-to-day and could probably play on Wednesday. If that [is] the case we might [send] Varly back [to Hershey] to play another game. There’s a lot of things going on in a quick amount of time.”
That practice, by the way, should be a real good time. Play that poorly two of three nights against teams you should beat – yes, New Jersey has talent when healthy, but it’s the league’s second-worst team and is crippled by injuries – and you will pay the price.
Make no mistake, while Holtby was far from perfect his teammates were equally culpable on this night. Five different Caps players finished with a -2 rating and defensemen Tyler Sloan and John Erskine – each a -1 – were also on the ice when Mattias Tedenby was hauled down for a penalty-shot call. Sloan left the game after that play with an undisclosed injury and missed the final two periods. Later, defenseman Mike Green left with an undisclosed injury, too. Both will be re-evaluated tomorrow in Raleigh, where Washington has a 1 p.m. practice in preparation for Wednesday’s game at Carolina. But Boudreau wasn’t giving much detail on their status. Green missed the final 12:50 of the game.
Another juicy nugget – how about Alex Ovechkin dropping to the third line alongside Marcus Johansson and Matt Bradley for a stretch in the second period. Can’t recall the last time, if ever, he played on the third line. His linemates – Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Semin – didn’t do much with or without him anyway. Semin, to be fair, did register five shots on goal. And Ovechkin showed signs of life in the third, hitting the post on a shot from the right wing. The game was far out of reach by then, of course. The star winger didn’t bristle when asked about the move. He flatly said when a team is playing that poorly the coach is going to make changes.
“I just didn’t like the way that first line was going – at all,” Boudreau said. “So I mean, I had to break them up. They weren’t working. This side of sitting all three of them…What you’re hoping for is that if they get a goal all of the sudden it might turn it around for those guys because they’re struggling.”
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