Mike Greenlay in a heap beside his own net, a teammate’s stick having sliced the ear of the Capitals’ young defenseman. That left New York Islanders forward Richard Park all the open space he needed to bury the game-winning goal in overtime on Saturday night in a 3-2 defeat.
Just like the shootout loss at Detroit last Monday and the home loss to Montreal on Thursday, there were a few positives for the Caps to take into the NHL’s Christmas Break. But the time for moral victories has long since passed for a team that is still where it began the Bruce Boudreau era on Thanksgiving Day — in last place in the Eastern Conference.
“For some reason, we just didn’t generate a whole lot of offense, judging by the shot total,” forward Matt Pettinger said of Washington’s 16 shots on goal Saturday night. “If you look at the positive, we got a point out of it. We could have gotten nothing. We had the same problem the last time we were here [in October] but we won. We were just trying to hang on until the shootout and take our chances there.”
Last week, the Caps gained an unexpected point by taking Detroit, the NHL’s top team, to overtime on the road. Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau frankly admitted Washington outplayed his team on Thursday. Yet where it mattered — on the scoreboard — the Caps were never in that 5-2 loss. And in New York, for the second time in three games, Washington fought off a devastating late goal by their opponent.
In Detroit, it was a Tomas Holmstrom tally with 4 minutes, 43 seconds to play that appeared to doom the Caps. The Islanders took a 2-1 lead with just 2:06 left when Bill Guerin smashed a rebound past goaltender Olie Kolzig.
But during a week where the Caps earned just two points from their three games, things could have been worse. Forward Alex Semin sent the Detroit game to overtime after a power-play goal with 1:34 remaining. Teammate Alex Ovechkin cut things even closer vs. the Islanders, ripping a game-tying shot past New York goalie Rick DiPietro with 55 seconds to play.
Both were feel-good moments for a team that will take any positive it can get at this point. But not gaining the extra point either night left them feeling hollow, too.
“That game [Saturday] was up for grabs,” Pettinger said. “In the long run not getting those extra points is huge. That’s the situation that we’re in now.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report
