Caps Fall To Lightning In OT

Preseason
Capitals 2, Lightning 3 F/OT

Special teams once again give the Caps fits even though they out-shot their opponents in pre-season play. Dan Boyle scored on a long shot 2:24 into overtime to cap a 3 goal comeback after trailing early 2-0. Caps showed promise by scoring the first goals early in the first and second periods, but it was the same old story from last year: Penalties are the chink in the Capitals armor.

The Caps actually beat Tampa Bay in shots 42-36. But it only took one shot in overtime that was the biggest Cap killer on a Brooks Laich high sticking penalty. Alexander Semin and Matt Pettinger were your goal scorers for the Caps. Brian Pothier, Ben Clymer and Laich all had assists. Alex Ovechkin was second in shots on goal, second to Semin, and did not score. Donald Brashear did play, but did not make the score sheet either in points or penalties.

Since the game was not televised, and the website radio broadcast was not working, I couldn’t really tell you anything about the game except what I could gain from the score sheets off NHL.com. Every player came out even in this game, only one player had a +1 and another had a -1 (Mike Green +1, Clymer -1).

The Caps face the Penguins for their next preseason game on Friday. It may be a match up of Ovechkin and Sid “the Kid” Crosby, but there will be no Evgeni Malkin who was injured in the preseason game with Ottawa after running into his own player (Mark Recchi who was also hurt in the same game for different reasons). No word on if that game will be televised or if there will be a radio webcast.

As concerned it is to see the Caps gain a good lead only to lose it with three unanswered goals, I really don’t take much stock in preseason games. Glen Hanlon is still playing with lines and many players that have permanent roster positions did not play tonight. Players that are jockeying for position must step up their defensive intensity for the team to be more rounded.