Dale Hunter’s first game as Capitals coach came replete with standing ovations and video montages of his best days with the team. It also came with yet another loss.
There are no quick fixes in the NHL. And while Washington played better in its own end, it couldn’t hold an early lead and struggled to push across the tying goal against a resurgent St. Louis Blues team adjusting to its own new coach. The result was a 2-1 loss on Tuesday night at Verizon Center.
Hunter replaced Bruce Boudreau on Monday and with limited practice time tried to keep his game plan as simple as possible. It worked to an extent. There were far fewer breakaway chances for the Blues than Washington has allowed in three recent blowout losses to Buffalo, Toronto and the New York Rangers. And the visible ebbing of confidence that has plagued the Caps in recent weeks when they fall behind also wasn’t as evident.
“We’ve got to battle through that,” defenseman John Carlson said. “We’re all big boys in here and we’ve all been around this game a while. We can’t let that set us back with all the talent and ability in this room to score five goals a game. We just have to find a way to do it.”
Nicklas Backstrom put Washington on top at 10 minutes, 15 seconds of the first period. Alex Ovechkin drove wide right, taking two Blues defenders with him, and then found Backstrom with a pass into the slot. Backstrom had plenty of time to slip a shot past goalie Jaroslav Halak.
But that was all the Caps would manage. Later in the first, Joel Ward blocked a shot along the boards only to kick it further into the defensive zone. His teammates were caught off guard and a quick pass from David Backes to Alexander Steen resulted in a shot. It hit the post, but defenseman Karl Alzner couldn’t corral T.J. Oshie, who banged home the rebound.
A goalie gaffe gave St. Louis the lead at 8:54 of the second. Tomas Vokoun allowed a rebound just as defenseman Dennis Wideman was pushed into the crease area. The two became tangled and Matt D’Agostini had a wide open net to stuff in his wrap-around attempt for the 2-1 lead. That came just minutes after the Caps killed a lengthy short-handed stretch, including a 5-on-3 power play for St. Louis that ended when Kevin Shattenkirk took a hooking penalty.
The Blues are resurgent under their own new coach Ken Hitchcock, who took over Nov. 8 and has led his team to an 8-1-2 record since then. St. Louis has now allowed just 13 goals in those 11 games. The Caps, meanwhile, fell to 12-10-1 overall and are 5-10-1 over their last 16 games. That stretch cost Boudreau his job and leaves Hunter with some work to do to get his team back on the right track. It wasn’t the return he’d imagined — even if it was nice to be home.
“To come back here was an awesome feeling,” Hunter said.
