In Washington, DC, the Capitals were playing their old coach’s team, the New York Islanders on Monday night.
Anthony Beauvillier set the tone of the evening early with two goals as the Isles built a 5-1 lead into the middle frame and then held off the Caps for a 5-3 win.
Anthony Beauvillier had two goals for the Islanders – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Alex Ovechkin was held scoreless for the second straight game.
“I think we came back and tried to take his time and space,” said New York coach Barry Trotz, who coached Ovechkin with the Capitals from 2014-18. “Ovi’s so good. He doesn’t need much of a window. I’ve seen it many times. He’s going to get 700. It wouldn’t have bothered me if he got 700 as long as we won the hockey game. I know he’s going to get it, and I’m a big believer he’s going to break [Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals]. I wish him luck because we don’t play them anymore for the rest of the year.”
John Carlson scored to get the Caps close early on before the Isles ripped off three additional strikes.
“We found a way to win a lot of games maybe when we shouldn’t have earlier in the year, and now we’re finding a way to lose them,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. “So now we need to figure out, as a group, together, how to solve this.”
Devon Toews, Leo Komorov and Jordan Eberle pushed the Isles advantage to 5-1 with second period goals.
“You kind of find your legs when you get points early,” Beauvillier said, “and I thought we as a group just did a good job sticking with it and following the game plan, just doing the right things out there.”
Lars Eller and T.J. Oshie scored in the latter half of the middle frame but that was all the Caps could muster.
“A couple games lately we found ways to get back, and tonight I think we did a great job at trying to get back, but you know, ran out of time or the deficit was a little too big,” Oshie said. “So we are struggling obviously a little bit, but you know, we can learn from a lot of these mistakes and grow and try to get better.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Capitals highlights]
Ilya Samsonov got the start and surrendered all five goals to the Isles. He made 15 saves before getting the hook in the middle frame.
Braden Holtby made 12 saves in a mop up role.
“It’s always tough when it’s your first time going through something like that,” Holtby said. “The thing is, he had no chance — it was just stacked against him. It’s a big thing. He has a really good head on his shoulders, and I’m sure he knows that.”
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