Courtesy: Nick Wass AP
WASHINGTON — Evgeny Kuznetsov played hard in his long-awaited NHL debut, but his efforts weren’t enough to spark the Washington Capitals enough to pull out a victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Verizon Center Monday night as the home team fell 3-2.
Despite his team being defeated, the efforts of the 21-year-old Russian didn’t go unnoticed as head coach Adam Oates gave the youngster a chance to play with the top line featuring Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Ovechkin as well as giving No. 92 a chance to partake in 1:10 of power play ice time. With 10:22 of total ice time, Washington’s 2010 first-round selection took two shots-on-goal and blocked one shot. Oates saw flashes of the player he could become.
“There [was] a couple of moments,” Oates said. “One shift in the second where you saw his hands, cut through the neutral zone and get a shot away. You could see his vision at times.[Kuznetsov’s] poised with the puck; he’s a great puck-handler.”
As for the rest of the team, it was more of the same in terms of how their season has gone. While the Capitals out-shot the Penguins 33-20, Washington were snake-bitten with mental mistakes once again that stemmed from poor hockey IQ and laziness in their own zone.
To give Pittsburgh some credit, they are a very talented and deep hockey team from top to bottom. Their puck movement at times rivals that of an NHL All-Star team and even when they are out-chanced in scoring opportunities, they find a way to win the puck possession battle and make their opposition frustrated. That wasn’t more apparent than the final 1:21 of the game.
Washington pulled Jaroslav Halak, had the extra skater and launched just one shot toward the net over the period of time. Oates called a timeout as the offense had a draw in Pittsburgh’s zone. But the Penguins’ defense stood tall, pinning the puck and the Capitals along the boards and away from the area in front of Jeff Zatkoff, who played well with 31 saves (10-3-1 overall record).
Once again, the puck possession battle was lost by Washington and it started where every game does in the faceoff circle. Pittsburgh went 30-52 on the dot (58%) as the Capitals have lost the battle of the draws for the sixth-straight game. Part of holding the puck and establishing possession is winning draws and Washington doesn’t do that.
To give an example as to how much the Capitals are struggling with faceoffs, forward Macus Johansson entered Monday’s contest with a 34.6% faceoff success percentage. As talented of a winger he is, his inability to win draws, when called upon due to the injury to Mikhail Grabovski, is hurting the team far more than helping. He was 4-9 (31%) Monday and teammate Eric Fehr was 3-7 (30%). Unacceptable for a team that has hopes of a playoff berth.
At this stage of the season, the Capitals need victories and dropping the first of a home and home with the Penguins hurts. Luckily, these two teams square off again Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. Defenseman John Carlson knows the importance of every game and illustrated that with his comments following the 3-2 loss.
“For us, it doesn’t matter who we play or matter [who] the opponent is,” Carlson said. “We need to win. Maybe as a refresher [or] a reminder and we can maybe use that against them [Tuesday] and that would be great.”
Since becoming the head coach of the Capitals, Adam Oates is 0-6 against the Penguins. His team remains a single point out of a Wild Card playoff spot with just 16 games to go.
