Starting his first game in four weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his knee, Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck was back between the pipes for Winnipeg on Saturday night at Canada Life Centre. Hellebuyck wasn’t tested much, but his return uplifted the struggling Jets, who skated off with a 5-1 victory.
Washington entered the game with a season high nine-game point streak (7-0-2) and a 4-0-1 mark in their last five road games, but the Caps were never in Saturday night’s contest, one of their rare clunkers to this point of the season.
“Today, I just didn't think we were very good, start to finish,” assesses Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It started in the first period, [we had] two power plays – not good enough. So you chalk that one up. We just weren't nearly good enough the entire night, in every facet.”
Despite having each of the game’s first two power plays, the first period landed well short of Washington’s best. The Caps’ two man-advantage opportunities were sandwiched around the game’s first goal, scored by an opportunistic Logan Stanley on a fortuitous bounce off the back wall at 6:50 of the first.
The Caps were able to generate some offensive zone time with those two early power plays, but it was fool’s gold in a way; most of their possession was on the perimeter. Two of their three first-period shots on goal came with the extra man; the lone shot the Caps generated at 5-on-5 in the opening period was a 58-footer off the stick of Nic Dowd, with less than two minutes remaining.
The Jets doubled their lead on a Morgan Barron goal at 18:43 of the first. Barron scored off the rush, redirecting an Adam Lowry feed past Logan Thompson.
Winnipeg held a lopsided 18-5 advantage in 5-on-5 shot attempts in the first frame.
Early in the second, the Jets added to their lead when Alex Iafallo attempted a centering feed from the half wall after Winnipeg won an offensive zone draw. The puck clicked off the stick of Caps’ center Justin Sourdif and bounded into the Washington net at 3:39.
Late in the second, the Caps failed to convert on a third power play, but when the Jets went on their second man advantage opportunity in the final minute, Gabriel Vilardi converted a Kyle Connor feed at the back door to make it a 4-0 contest with 6.6 seconds left.
Effort wasn’t lacking for Washington, but execution certainly was, and the Caps also didn’t get much in the way of bounces, and they occasionally stymied themselves with their decision making.
“They're a good team,” says Washington winger Anthony Beauvillier. “They were fast, they were in our face; we couldn’t make quick plays. But I feel like we kind of did it to ourselves a little bit. I think they're a good team, they made it hard on us, obviously, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to look at ourselves first, and make sure it doesn’t happen again next game.”
Just after the midpoint of the third, Vilardi made it a 5-0 game with his second goal of the night.
Late in the third, the Caps were able to spoil Hellebuyck’s shutout bid when John Carlson teed up Jakob Chychrun for a one-timer from the right dot while Washington was on a two-man advantage. Chychrun’s 12th goal of the season spoiled Hellebuyck’s bid for a third career shutout against the Caps with 3:28 remaining.
Throughout most of the season, Washington has been among the top teams in the NHL at controlling shot attempts at 5-on-5, but that aspect of their game has slipped somewhat precipitously in the last four contests, a small sample size to be sure. The Caps have controlled just 42.86 percent of 5-on-5 shot attempts over that stretch, ranking 29th in the League.
“Obviously, it's a couple games [where] we lost our lost our momentum a little bit,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “But we played two good hockey teams; they take away time and space. I think maybe on nights like tonight, you’ve just got to keep it a little more simple and get pucks in and just work at it. Little plays and stuff just aren't there. And we’ve got to, know when it's a different type of style, and adjust our play a little bit.”
Some strong goaltending from Thompson has papered over some of the Caps’ 5-on-5 woes; they’ve only scored six 5-on-5 goals now in their last four games, but they’ve yielded only eight, with half of those coming tonight against the Jets.
“Not much went well tonight, in all areas of our game,” says Chychrun. “Just a lack of execution with the puck. For some reason, there were plays to be made, and we were either late making a play, or just making the wrong one, and it led to a lot of time in the [defensive] zone.
“It just wasn’t our best night.”
The Jets were also clearly juiced to get Hellebuyck back in the net; they failed to win consecutive games and went 3-8-1 in his absence. Saturday’s win over Washington halted a three-game slide for the Jets, last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners.
“Yeah, it’s a thing for sure,” says Beauvillier of Hellebuyck’s return. “Arguably their best player comes back, and they probably got a little more juice from it, and they came out pretty hard.”
