Caps knocked down early, never recover in loss to Tampa Bay originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Two days after the Capitals blew out the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1, it was Tampa Bay’s turn to issue a beatdown on its home ice as Washington fell 6-3 Sunday night.
It was all Lightning for the first 20 minutes, jumping ahead 4-0 in a period that nearly went by without the Capitals registering a shot on goal. Though two of the goals took unfortunate bounces off Washington players, they pulled goalie Darcy Kuemper before the period was up.
Aside from a late second-period goal by winger Conor Sheary, the Capitals never got their offense going enough to climb back into it.
Here are three takeaways from the Capitals’ loss to the Lightning.
Kuemper pulled after disastrous first
The Lightning came out aggressive Sunday, showing the level of physicality expected for a team that lost a player to injury on an illegal hit in the first leg of a home-and-home series. They scored their first goal just 1:28 into the game when defenseman Mikhail Sergachev fired a shot that bounced off center Dylan Strome to get past Kuemper.
That wouldn’t be the only unlucky goal scored on Kuemper. Tampa Bay picked up another tally later in the period on a shot that deflected off Capitals defenseman Erik Gustafsson’s skate.
In all, the Lightning scored four times on nine shots against Kuemper, forcing assistant coach Kevin McCarthy — standing in for head coach Peter Laviolette while he’s in COVID protocol — to pull him for Charlie Lindgren after only 16:22 of ice time.
Sergachev was the standout player for Tampa Bay in the period. He scored twice and recorded an assist on the other two to match the franchise record for most points by a defenseman in a period.
Capitals’ offense disappears
Washington appeared to be breaking out of its scoring slump this week with a pair of five-goal outings against the Lightning and Edmonton Oilers. However, the Capitals were unable to carry that over into Sunday’s game as the managed little offense until the game was already well in hand. Two of the team’s three goals on the night came in garbage time in the third period.
The power play, which has at times propped up the offense, went silent in an 0-for-6 night that saw the Capitals manage just three shots in 9:49 of ice time with the man advantage. They only fired off 22 shots all night, failing to break double digits in each of the first two periods.
Sheary provided the lone goal of the first 57 minutes for Washington, taking a strong pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov to beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for the goal.
The Capitals then seemingly woke up with two goals in the final two minutes of the game as both center Lars Eller and winger Garnet Hathaway found the back of the net. Tampa Bay scored an empty netter as well, however, keeping the game out of reach.
Lindgren plays solid in relief
Thrust into a 4-0 game that looked headed toward an ugly blowout, Lindgren entered the contest late in the first period and settled things down for Washington. He stopped 24 of 25 shots he faced, giving the Capitals the chance to make the score more respectable.
Lindgren has appeared in five games this season and seen a tough slate of opponents: Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights, Oilers and Lightning. Even so, he’s managed to post a solid 3.02 goals against average and .915 save percentage.
It’s unclear who the Capitals will turn to for their next game Tuesday against the vaunted Florida Panthers. They’re in the midst of a three-game road trip that wraps up Thursday with a date against Lindgren’s former team, the St. Louis Blues.
With the loss Sunday, the Capitals fell to 7-8-2 on the season. They’ve alternated wins and losses for each of their last five games, keeping them hovering around .500.