With plenty of social media finger-pointing at one or two players, the reality is there was plenty of blame to go around last night.
A lot of NHL coaches, Jacques Martin included, like to have a deep look at the game video before they start publicly doling out blame or identifying problem areas. So I put aside everything I thought I knew about Ottawa's dreadful first period last night, kept an open mind and spent some extra time with the game video.
My mission? To zoom in, slow down, rewind, pause, fast-forward as much as required to try and figure out what went wrong in that awful first period.
Defenceman Jakob Chychrun and starting goalie Anton Forsberg, in particular, are taking a lot of heat on social media today for their role in the first period mess. But in reality, the mistake-filled opening frame was a team effort.
Forsberg, for one, wasn't nearly as much to blame as I first thought while watching the game in real-time.
So let's look at the lead up to each goal last night, the mistakes that were made, and what really happened.
Washington's first goal:
There was a lot going on here and most of the blame here went to Chychrun. While he definitely deserves some, Travis Hamonic wears some as well. And if Tim Stutzle follows a couple of hockey's golden rules, "Make the simple play," and "Don't turn the puck over near the blue line," we're not having this discussion at all.
Stutzle got to a puck at the boards near the top of the circle and had just enough time to either rim it to the soft area behind Washington's net or pass it back to Jakob Chychrun, who was standing at the Caps' blue line, waiting for it. Both options would have been easy, if done quickly. But Stutzle opted to try and hold on to the puck at a dangerous point on the ice and turned it over.
That left Chychrun flat-footed and surprised, suddenly on defence instead of offence. Both Stutzle and Chychrun made a wild stab for the puck but the Caps got there first, chipping it out for a 2-on-1 led by Anthony Mantha who was already in stride. Even if Chychrun had immediately backpedaled after the turnover, Mantha would have blown past him anyway.
Travis Hamonic was the last man back, but failed to take the pass away. With Mantha's pass getting through, Forsberg had to lunge violently to his right to stop what he expected would be a tap-in attempt. But because Hamonic had completely slid out of the way, and because Chychrun was slow to get back, Protas had the room he needed to pull it to his backhand and score.
Washington's second goal:
Parker Kelly (27) completely screened Forsberg, literally posed like a goalie 15 feet in front of him. It's highly likely Forsberg never saw the puck come off Carlson's stick.
Washington's third goal:
Max Pacioretty scored on the power play from the top of the circle. Hamonic was down trying to block the shot. In reviewing the video angle from behind the net, Hamonic was not only in the way, but there's a chance it deflected in off of him. Pacioretty's follow through is high, but the puck beats Forsberg low.
But Mathieu Joseph shares some blame here too and it's actually a clever play by Pacioretty. He suckers Joseph into thinking he's passing to the middle, but goes hard to the net instead. Joseph decides to cheat, in hopes of getting a shorthanded breakaway, and the Sens get burned.
Washington's fourth goal:
Chabot was first back on retrieval with the 6-foot-6 Protas on his tail. An easy forehand rim behind the net was available, but Chabot went back into the flow of traffic, and tried to hack the puck over to Pinto, who had a man right on him. As Chabot falls behind his net, Pinto also tries to chip off the boards to Chychrun, who veers over to receive the pass that, as was the case with Stutzle earlier, never comes.
Instead, Nicolas Aube-Kubel knocked it away from Pinto and the puck went right to the front of Ottawa's net for Protas. Chabot and Chychrun both scrambled to get to Protas, who tapped it to Malenstyn who was wide open, seven feet in front of Forsberg with all day to pick his spot.
Interestingly, none of the five Capitals' goal scorers on Monday night entered the game with more than five goals on the season. That's some deep secondary scoring.
The blame game is easy when you just look at the tip of the iceberg. There's often a lot more going on than meets the eye.
All that said, like the ugly loss to Anaheim, it's just one game. Every team has a terrible game now and then. When a team is playing well, you can't treat the odd dud like it's a tragedy. If they begin to string them together and start looking like they did in the first half of the season, then it's a problem. A big one.