The Capitals alternate captain didn't read too much into the fans' opinions of Washington's approach to OT against Carolina, which helped pave the way for a 2-1 shootout win.
The Washington Capitals battled it out until the very end for a gritty 2-1 shootout victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, and one highlight of the night was Washington's approach to overtime.
It was an interesting strategy for the Capitals, as they took advantage of the 3-on-3 and extra space to not so much engage in a run-and-gun showdown with Carolina, but to backskate, maintain possession and play a bit of keepaway.
That strategy incited a chorus of dissatisfaction from the crowd, but it eventually led to Washington weathering the storm and heading to the shootout, where Evgeny Kuznetsov and Darcy Kuemper worked their magic to guarantee two points.
Still, it's not exactly how head coach Spencer Carbery or his club wrote it up.
"I can't take credit for all those regroups and the puck possession, other than the fact that we were maybe trying to up our puck possession numbers, but I don't know if they count. That wasn’t strategic; we’re just trying to find a way to create an advantage," Carbery told reporters with a smile. "The only thing I would say that's strategic about it is we value possession, not just going down and wasting a shot or forcing a play. So we're looking for an advantage to create, and we get a couple of decent looks. I know it's a long process and the fans aren't necessarily on board with it... interesting overtime."
Tom Wilson also said that a lot of it had to do with load management and balancing out ice time and fatigue among the Capitals skaters, who were playing in their second game in less than 24 hours as part of a weekend back-to-back.
"It's kinda funny. We kept getting one fresh guy out and one tired guy, so we were you kinda wanna wait for two guys to have legs, because you don’t want anyone tired on the ice," Wilson said. "So kind of felt like one guy was jumping, he’d have the puck for 30 seconds and then we’d get one change and just kind of disjointed. I thought we did a good job at actually holding onto the puck."
At the end of the day, it worked for Washington, who got two good looks with Dylan Strome going on a 2-on-1 and Connor McMichael also getting a clean shot at Pyotr Kochetkov while the Hurricanes were limited to just one shot.
As for the critics, Wilson tuned it all out.
"They can boo all they want. We want the puck on our stick and trust our guys’ decisions," he said. "And we had some: we had a breakaway, kind of open net last five seconds there. It’s better when it’s in our hands and we’re in control, and I thought we did a good job of controlling it in OT.”