Fools gold. Playing tired Caps team without 2 best defensemen and resting Holtby. Carolina is in no mans land: not good enough to contend or bad enough for top 5 pick. Lots of good young talent, add to it by trading Staal brothers and Ward.
- bondraovie
Respectfully disagree here. I was at the game and while the Caps had played the night before and Carlsson & Holtby were out, they had plenty of jump save for some moments in the 2nd period when the Canes were keeping them in their own zone. Any team is going to be gassed for a time playing that long in their own end.
I thought Grubauer played very well and Washington had plenty of opportunities, particularly in the 3rd when the Canes were back on their heels a bit. But as Bill Peters said today after their practice, they had a few mental lapses on D that resulted in at least one of the goals (Hanifin's giveaway I believe directly resulted in Ovechkin's chance - no goalie on the planet saves that shot by the way).
So not to say Carolina played unbeatable, but they definitely were the better team on that night and from my eyes about 20 rows off the ice, the Caps were plenty game.