Your Washington Capitals (3-1-2, 8pts) suffered their first regulation loss Wednesday night against the Edmonton Oilers (2-4-1, 5 pts) by a score of 3-2. The goals for the Capitals came from John Carlson and Mike Green. On Carlson’s goal, Nicklas Backstrom provided the assist for his 500th point. Assisting on Green’s goal, rookie Andre Burakovsky continued his fast start. In this game forward Jay Beagle played for the first time this season after suffering an injury in the preseason. Beagle replaced Brooks Laich, who sustained a shoulder injury last Saturday night against the Florida Panthers.
This is the kind of game that Caps’ coach Barry Trotz couldn’t be too displeased with afterwards, as the team actually played very well, battering Edmonton goaltender Ben Scrivens with 34 shots. The Capitals were also one-for-two on both the power play and penalty kill in this game; the Oilers were just able to win the goaltending battle. As a result of this loss, the Caps are now tied for 2nd in the Metropolitan Division with three other teams sitting two points behind the division leading, New York Islanders who have 10 points in the standings. If the Capitals are able to play like they did in this game consistently, they’ll win more than they lose and be in good shape throughout the season, this is just one that got away.
The Caps now move onto the second game of this Canadian road trip to face the Calgary Flames (5-3-1, 11pts) at Scotiabank Saddledome. This is a good team the Caps will play as they are tied for 2nd in the Pacific Division with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings. Hopefully in this one the Capitals will be rewarded if they put in as a good a performance as they did against Edmonton.
Three things to watch:
- How will the Caps bounce back from a loss in a game that they very well could’ve won?
- Will the offense be able to get the puck past Flames’ goalies Jonas Hiller or Karri Ramo who have impressive goals allowed averages so far this season at 1.78 and 2.19 respectively?
- Can the Capitals continue to be as stout on defense as they have been in pretty much every game this season?
LET’S GO CAPS!!!
