Give credit to Tampa Bay defenseman Randy Jones – a guy who hadn’t seen the ice in a real game since a March 7 contest vs. the Caps. With Matt Bradley bearing down on him in the defensive zone, Jones had his head up and saw the left side of the ice wide open. Washington defenseman Scott Hannan decided the long dump in would give him enough time to get across the ice for a line change. But Jones was too quick. He whipped the puck down the left boards a good two seconds before Bradley finished his check. The pass hit Teddy Purcell in the neutral zone and he drove into the Lightning offensive end with Caps defenseman Mike Green in pursuit.
Jeff Schultz, meanwhile, had to wait for Hannan to clear the ice. By the time that happened he and forward Nicklas Backstrom were well behind Vinny Lecavalier. Hannan was skating a shift with John Carlson because Karl Alzner had broken his stick about 40 seconds earlier. Schultz tried to close out Purcell, but there was just too much space behind him. Purcell floated a pass in front and Lecavalier had all the time in the world to wait out goalie Michal Neuvirth in a 3-2 overtime win. Two fourth-line forwards – Boyd Gordon and Marco Sturm – had also just departed the scene. Backstrom and Brooks Laich made it onto the ice, but were also well behind the play.
Tough to assign blame to one guy there. Maybe Hannan since he vacated an entire side of the ice with little help behind him. But he also thought Bradley had Jones in his sights. It was just a nice play by a guy who hadn’t, you know, actually played since being injured against the Caps.
“Just a little miscommunication on the line change, and I think they made a line change and kind of snuck a guy behind us that we just weren’t aware of,” Schultz said. “That guy had a two-on-one.”
Added Caps coach Bruce Boudreau: “It was a bad change and at the same time the guys coming on didn’t come on anywhere near as quick as they should have. It was a combination.”
Bradley thought he had Jones cornered. It was only after his check and when he turned his head that he realized the Caps might be in trouble.
“Honestly, I didn’t see what happened,” Bradley said. “I went and hit the guy in the corner and then I just kind of turned around and it was already down in our end. I’ll have to take a look at it [on video replay].”
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