Lightning 4, Caps 2
Not the way you want to start a playoff series. The Caps played well enough for 30 minutes or so to feel like they should have won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Verizon Center. They didn’t. Two late goals in the second period – one a lucky deflection off defenseman Scott Hannan – built on the game’s already shifting momentum. Washington had drifted from its new defense-first identity. Tampa Bay took advantage and now leads the series 1-0 with home-ice advantage – for what that’s worth – in its favor. Read the details from our expanded game story here.
Some notes and quotes from tonight’s game:
Jason Chimera wouldn’t bite when asked about his roughing call with two minutes left in the second period that led to Steven Stamkos’ game-winning goal. But he wasn’t exactly repentant, either. Tampa Bay defenseman Pavel Kubina didn’t return from that blow – and even Washington coach Bruce Boudreau admitted Chimera came up too high.
“I’m not the referees. I’m not going to comment on the penalty,” Chimera said. “But I’m just trying to finish my check. I’m not going to do anything different, I think. I’m going to go in there and finish my check every time. If it gets called, it gets called. I’m not going to back away from hitting people…I thought it was a clean hit, but that’s the way it is.”
That wasn’t the only injury for the Lightning. After starting just 11 forwards to go with an extra defenseman, Tampa Bay suddenly found itself playing with 10 forwards when Simon Gagne was lifted into the boards by Hannan at 7:22 of the first period. Scary scene for a while as a stretcher came out onto the ice. But Gagne eventually stood up and was helped off the ice by medical personnel. An important part of the Lightning attack – and a noted Caps killer – Gagne has a history of serious concussions. He returned to the team hotel and will be re-evaluated on Saturday, according to coach Guy Boucher.
“A lot better outcome than it was looking like when he was on the ice, for sure,” Boucher said.
Tampa Bay compensated by rotating its line combinations, double-shifting players and keeping those shifts short – like 20 to 30 seconds in most cases. It worked, though that’s not a situation you want to find yourself in too often. If that game goes to overtime it’s hard to see a good outcome with just 10 forwards.
Another key for the Lightning is a red-hot penalty kill. They were successful 34 of 35 times in the Pittsburgh series and were 5-for-5 against the Caps on Friday. Tampa was pretty good during the regular season (83.8%), ranking eighth overall in the NHL. But this is getting ridiculous. Caps do need to shoot more. They managed just five shots total on five power plays.
“There’s always the luck element in there,” Boucher said. “Our players put a lot of work into the details. They really do. They spend a lot of time watching video by themselves or in little groups on top of what we make them watch. They figured out a lot of the small details that make you successful. But you look at their power play and they still had a lot of time and possession in our zone, they make great plays, they could have scored some goals. So we’re not kidding ourselves. They’re going to score some goals on the power play for sure. I would be shocked if the next game they don’t score one. So we’re staying very down to earth about this win because they’re the more powerful team than us and sometime it’s bound to show.”
Caps defenseman John Carlson suffered an injury of his own. He’s listed as day-to-day and Boudreau is “hopeful” he plays in Game 2 Sunday. Injury occurred with about 5:23 left in the second period. Not sure what happened, but Carlson was in obvious pain on the bench and seen stretching during breaks in play. He started on the first shift of the third period, lasted 20 seconds, came back at 13:11 of the third and lasted just 16 seconds. What a shock – Washington playing a man down on the blueline. That hasn’t happened since, oh, last Saturday when Mike Green was knocked from Game 5 against New York.
“Well, [Carlson is] day-to-day. I’m hoping he can go Sunday,” Boudreau said. “But at the same time when you lose John you lose pretty well half your really offensive defensemen. Mike [Green] – the other guys are really good defending, but they’re not known for their offensive prowess.”
To a man, the Caps said Downie’s goal shouldn’t have made that dramatic an impact. Yes, it was a fluky deflection. But Boudreau credited Downie for being in a good spot on the ice to make that play happen in the first place.
Chimera: “Can’t let one fluky play like that hurt us. It’s one goal. You’ve got to be more mentally strong than that.”
Hannan: “He’ll do that play 100 times and maybe a couple it will bounce in like that. It was a tough play…[But] I thought the momentum changed when we stopped playing how we wanted to.”
Fehr: “That was unfortunate. But we’re still tied at that point. We’ve got to keep pushing forward and find way to stay out of the box – whether it’s our fault or it’s not we got to find a way to stay out.”
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
