The Capitals' third line was a minus-3 in a 5-3 loss in the season opener.
The Capitals' third line was a minus-3 in a 5-3 loss in the season opener.
WASHINGTON — Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery didn't mince words when it came to the third line's performance in the 5-3 season-opening loss to the New Jersey Devils.
The bench boss was brutally honest when asked postgame about the trio of Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre and Aliaksei Protas, which was on the ice for the first three goals against and was ultimately benched later in the game.
"I was trying to help them," Carbery said bluntly.
Protas had over 10 minutes of ice time in the defeat as he also got time on the penalty kill, but Hendrix Lapierre skated just 7:45 while Sonny Milano had only 5:44 minutes of ice time. They were a minus-3.
"I mean, the first three shifts they're on the ice and it's in the back of the net," Carbery said. "It's a tough night. You can look at the goals that they were on for, you can break little things down that happened."
Ultimately, Carbery said that it was more beneficial to keep that line off the ice as it struggled against a fast Devils team.
"You have those nights where no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, it ends up going the other way, and that was what it felt like for that line tonight... it didn't matter how hard they tried, they were just going to end up in the back of the net."
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