VANCOUVER — Three keys to beating the Washington Capitals:
1. Don’t let their power play beat you
2. Don’t take penalties — so their power play can’t beat you
3. Really, you still don’t get it?
The Vancouver Canucks took just enough penalties on Monday for the Capitals’ power play to beat them.
Washington actually has a lot more than just its power play going for it. After all, the Capitals won the Stanley Cup last year, so they must do some other stuff well, too. But some nights, a lot of nights, their power play is enough.
Evgeny Kuznetsov’s power-play one-timer was a surprise. Alex Ovechkin’s was not. Those goals powered the Capitals to a 5-2 win against the Canucks, who struggled for energy at the start of the game the way they did towards the end of their 2-1 overtime win Saturday against the Boston Bruins.
They’re not likely to feel fresher soon. After a six-game road trip, followed by two homes games against championship-calibre teams, the Canucks leave Tuesday for back-to-back games in Las Vegas and Arizona.
Universally picked to finish near the bottom of the National Hockey League standings for a fourth straight year, the Canucks have survived their early endurance test, winning five of nine games. But they teetered at times against the Bruins and Capitals, and this looks like a very important week for them.
Are they going to keep surprising people, or slip towards the level predicted for them?
“For us to just say we’ll get by isn’t good enough for our group,” Canucks centre Bo Horvat said. “We want to play hard every night, want to be tough to play against.
“It’s a grueling schedule. But we knew it was going to be like this. We looked at the schedule before the season and knew it was going to be tough. None of the games are easy. When you play the Stanley Cup champions, you know they’re going to come hard.”
The Capitals seemed to play only as hard as they needed.
After a fluke goal by Vancouver defenceman Troy Stecher, whose floater from the point was palmed into the Washington net by Capital Nic Dowd to tie the game 1-1, Kuznetsov blasted short-side through Canuck goalie Anders Nilsson to make it 2-1 at 9:29 of the middle period.
Brandon Sutter cleared a rebound against Ovechkin and into the Vancouver net to make it 3-1 at 19:34 of the second. And when Sven Baertschi buried a rebound for a Canucks power-play goal just 20 seconds into the third period, Ovechkin buried the Canucks with a shot that seemed to gather velocity as it nicked defenceman Chris Tanev and blew past Nilsson at 5:35.
Washington’s top-ranked power play, which began the night at 38.5 per cent, finished two-for-five and has produced 12 goals in the Capitals’ first eight games.
“The first goal, we’re happy giving that shot up,” Tanev said of Kuznetsov’s blast. “It’s almost from the boards and just a really good shot; nothing we can do there. And the Ovechkin goal … he shoots it and hits the back of my leg and it goes in. I’ve got to get in the lane there and block the shot. We knew how good their power play was coming in and our goal was to shut it down. They scored two goals and that ended up being the difference in the game.”
“They have a lot of different options, a lot of shooting threats,” defenceman Alex Edler said. “We did a pretty good job, I think. There wasn’t too much going through our [penalty-killing] box. But they’re good. Sometimes you’ve got to try to take away the most dangerous play and they still find a way to score.”
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Asked about the Canucks’ lifeless start, when they allowed John Carlson’s redirect goal at 2:20 after puck-drop and were outshot 13-6 in the opening period, Edler said: “I don’t know what it was. Our execution wasn’t there. And especially against a team like this, you’re going to get punished if you’re not sharp.”
The Canucks haven’t outshot an opponent since elite rookie Elias Pettersson was concussed by Florida Panther Michael Matheson’s illegal hit on Oct. 13. Pettersson, who rejoined the Canucks for the morning skate on Monday and is expected to fully practice on Tuesday, could play on the two-game road trip.
Vancouver is 2-2 without its leading scorer. The Canucks could use an energy boost.
“Obviously, it’s been a tough two weeks for sure with travel and stuff,” Sutter said. “But I don’t think it’s our energy. We’ve had a couple of days off the last few days, too, so I thought guys were still feeling pretty fresh. We’ve just got to keep our energy.”
And keep surviving.