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Young Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth found himself looking into the back of his net one too
many times Friday night in a 3-2 loss. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
The Caps' Eric Fehr netted the only goal of the first period for either team, but the Canadiens had twice as many shots on goal in the first, only the second time a Washington opponent has done that this year. Even Alex Ovechkin looked off his game, despite registering a huge crowd-pleasing hit in the opening period. Head coach Bruce Boudreau agreed.
"I didn't think we were ready at the start of the game," Boudreau said. "We were flat. I think we thought, 'Oh, we're the Washington Capitals, and we're gonna go out there and it's gonna be an easy win.' And there's no easy win in the National Hockey League."'
The first twenty minutes were very physical, ending with a five-minute fighting penalty on John Erskine and the Canadiens' Georges Laraque, and featuring a nifty hit by Brooks Laich which sent Roman Hamrlik flying into the Capitals bench. Apart from Erskine's penalty, the Capitals stayed out of the box for forty minutes. But the home team couldn't break their unfortunate penchant for drawing penalties in the third period: Mathieu Perreault got called for hooking, Brendan Morrison served time for diving, and finally, Laich got called for tripping.The Canadiens scored the game-winner while Laich was in the box.
"I'm not sure what happens to us," Fehr said when asked if the Caps have a third period penalty curse. "We had a pretty disciplined game in the first two periods, and somehow, someway we found ourselves in penalty trouble again. Hopefully, the curse will be gone soon."
Down 3-1 with two minutes left, the Caps were given one last chance to score when the Canadiens got called for hooking with less than two minutes left in the game. Brendan Morrison found the net -- and Mike Green got his second assist of the night -- but it was too little, too late.
Because of the battered Capitals lineup -- Mike Knuble, Alex Semin, Boyd Gordon, Quintin Laing, Milan Jurcina, and Shaone Morrisonn are all injured, and Jose Theodore's still not dressing for games -- there were several new faces on the ice for the Caps: center Jay Beagle, defenseman John Carlson, and goalie Michal Neuvirth. As if that list was not long enough, blue-liner Tom Poti suffered an upper body injury in the first and didn't return to start the second period. Boudreau says the Caps will probably call someone else up from Hershey to play tonight against Toronto, as it's questionable as to whether Jurcina or Morrisonn will be ready to come back.
Boudreau said Carlson played with a lot of poise in his first game, and that Neuvirth kept the Caps in the game between the posts.
"[Neuvirth] did what a starting pitcher's supposed to do, keep you in the game -- and we didn't take advantage of it," Boudreau said. "[Carlson]'s shots from the point were accurate. He's going to be a good player in this league for a long time."
Fehr added that despite all the new faces, he feels the team is adapting to the lineup shuffle.
"I feel like we're adjusting pretty well," Fehr said. "We got guys going in, filling in the holes. We had a lot of chances tonight, we just weren't lucky to get a few more."
Boudreau, however, had a different way of putting it in his press conference -- he said his team wasn't willing to get the dirty goals this time around and get those second shots.
"We weren't paying the price," Boudreau said. "I didn't think we wanted it hard enough."
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"I didn't think we were ready at the start of the game," Boudreau said. "We were flat. I think we thought, 'Oh, we're the Washington Capitals, and we're gonna go out there and it's gonna be an easy win.' And there's no easy win in the National Hockey League."'
You mean, sorta like the way the team ended the regular season last year and started the playoffs? Still working out those kinks?