Caps 6, Tampa Bay 5 (Shootout)
Little bit of everything at Verizon Center tonight. Rough play by both goalies. Defensive mistakes. Goals by the bucketful. A pair of 4-on-3 power plays in overtime with some rare 3-on-3 action thrown in for good measure. This thing – though far sloppier in overall play – reminded me of some of those insane Caps-Penguins games in 2008-09 and 2009-10 where no lead was safe. Check out our game story here, especially as Washington goalie Tomas Vokoun explains how a team wins when it “literally” gets no goaltending. The 35-year-old Czech Republic native sounded like he was channeling Rob Lowe’s character, Chris Traeger, from NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”. It was about as stand-up performance as I’ve seen from a pro athlete in a good while. Not every goal was Vokoun’s fault. But it’s pretty hard to pin this one on the defensemen.
“I don’t know. They scored three goals from behind the net,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They only had 18 shots until the overtime. So I got to believe they didn’t have a lot of chances. I know in the first period they had two goals and no chances. I got to believe the defense was okay.”
“Okay” might be strong. The blueliners were far from perfect. But Vokoun eventually settled down, made some key stops in the third period and especially in overtime when the two teams played 3-on-3 for 58 seconds and Tampa had separate 4-on-3 power plays for a total of 1 minute, 54 seconds. He even earned the hard hat from his teammates for fighting back from that rough start. But despite being outshot 43-28, the Lightning had to feel like they should have left with two points. Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher tried to explain the sloppy play on both sides.
“No, not one of the craziest games. I’ve seen last year 8-7 against Philly in their barn so that was something,” Boucher said. “But it was a weird game. When we watch the other teams play on TV it’s the same thing. It’s the beginning of the year so guys are fumbling pucks, turnovers when you usually don’t. Basically it was a dog fight and we didn’t lose at even strength. We lost it in a shootout.”
And then Boucher went on to reprise his role as Lou Holtz from last year’s Stanley Cup playoff series between the two teams.
“It’s much better than the first time we were here last year. Last year we got our butts kicked coming in [6-3 on Nov. 11 and 6-0 on Nov. 26],” Boucher said. “So it’s an important step from the beginning of last year. We know they’ve got an incredible team. They’ve got no weaknesses. They’re the No. 1 team ranked in our conference.”
Think Boudreau probably spotted a weakness or three in Washington’s game tonight. The defensemen made their share of errors again after a so-so night against Carolina in the season opener. The power play seemed to have more movement than we saw at times last year. That unit also took the bagel at 0-for-6, including nothing from 1:14 of 5-on-3 play and 1:37 of 4-on-3 play. That didn’t quite rise to the level of juggernaut, did it Bruce?
“Not completely. I’d like to be playing better defense,” Boudreau said. “I sort of got used to that [in 2010-11]. I’d like to keep the goals out. But we’ll take them as we can get them. I’m sure it’s going to turn around eventually.”
But Boudreau couldn’t complain about the stellar play of Marcus Johansson, who rebounded from a benching in style. Or Jason Chimera, who scored twice and now has three goals in two games and notched No. 100 and 101 of his career. The third line of Chimera, Brooks Laich and Joel Ward looks formidable early in the year, contributing at the offensive end, but also helping stymie Tampa Bay’s top line led by Steven Stamkos. And Troy Brouwer led all players with seven hits and deflected home a goal in the second period to tie the game at 3-3. So some good, a lot of bad, but two points and a 2-0 start overall and in the Southeast Division. In October? The Caps will take it.
“We’re catching them on the third game on a three-game road trip and they’re probably a little bit tired,” Boudreau said. “So I’m not putting any stock into the fact that it was Tampa Bay. It was a divisional game and we’re happy. They were a little tired, but more importantly, that it ends up with us getting two points.”
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
