“I just messed up with my alarm clock… made a mistake”, Ovechkin said. “I didn’t like our first period”.
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Braden Holtby played well despite allowing three goals – he was simply overwhelmed and got very little help.
“He’s exactly what we needed”, DeBoer said. That tells me that we’ll stay in the fight.
Ovechkin’s absence is a bad way to draw negative attention to a team in need of good mojo this early in the season. I didn’t like our overall game.
“We tried to not make a big deal of it yesterday because it was a game day”, Trotz said. The Capitals host the Sharks at 4 p.m. (PDT), as San Jose begins a four-game, East Coast trip.
The Sharks enjoyed consistency throughout the lineup with five different players finding the back of the net; three for the first time this season. The Caps will have to get a quick start in this game if they fend off a strong Sharks offense and get Jones shaky on his feet.
Mike Brown scored in the second period for his first goal since December. 3, 2013, to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead. Against the Capitals, we saw offensive production up and down the Sharks lines, successful penalty killing, and the ability for the Sharks maintain good puck possession. After Tommy Wingels’ shot was stopped by Holtby, Hertl collected the rebound and scored his second of the season. Following the game, head coach Peter Deboer would go on to say, “I think a statement was made that the Sharks are back and we’re for real this year”. Brooks Laich, Michael Latta and Sean Collins were a combined -2 against New Jersey. This time, they kept their foot on the gas to get another goal.
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Trotz said he understood what happened, but the rules are the rules. “That’s plain and simple”. That’s something they’ll have to fix. “We’re feeling each other out right now”.
