Monday’s 6-2 loss to the Washington Capitals saw familiar flaws pop up again for the Utah Hockey Club. The team’s offensive droughts, special teams, and troubles in net helped propel the Capitals to win for the first time in Delta Center. Utah is currently in the middle of a bad stretch of games and the repeated flaws are currently killing their chances to be a better team. Here are some takeaways from Monday night’s game.
Alex Ovechkin Strikes Twice
It was pretty obvious that Alex Ovechkin was going to have a role in taking down Utah. The Russian forward is 39 yet he’s still producing All-Star numbers like he’s in his 20s. That didn’t change on Monday.
In the first, after grabbing a 2-1 lead, the Capitals weren’t done scoring yet. Pierre Luc-Dubois passed the puck over to Ovechkin who was in his usual spot near the faceoff dot. Just like most Ovechkin shots from that place, the puck beat Connor Ingram for his 867th career goal.
Ovechkin’s night wasn’t over there. In the second period, the Capitals were on the power play. Dylan Strome won the faceoff in Utah’s zone and passed it back to John Carlsson who found Ovechkin once again near the faceoff circle. The forward fired and scored his 868th career goal to put the Capitals up 4-1.
Related: Karel Vejmelka Making a Case to Be Utah’s No. 1 Goalie
The two goals put Ovechkin only 27 goals away from catching Wayne Gretzky’s record for most career goals scored in the NHL. Unfortunately for Capitals fans, their captain would suffer a big injury in the third period. After colliding with Jack McBain, Ovechkin would fall and stay on the ice. He later left the game with an apparent leg injury.
It’s unclear how bad Ovechkin’s injury is. However, if it isn’t a horrible one, he could pass Gretzky this season if he keeps playing up to the level he’s currently at right now. While for Utah fans, it sucks seeing their team lose, it’s still incredible that NHL All-Stars and history is being made right in Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
An Off Night for the Goaltenders
While it is easy to blame goaltending after every loss, there are those nights where it is part of the problem. Monday was one of those nights for Ingram and Karel Vejmelka.
You could give Vejmelka a pass for not looking his best on Monday. He came into the game in the third period when the Capitals were already leading 4-2. Aliakesi Protas’ goal that put the Capitals up 6-2 was a bad one to give up but Brandon Duhaime’s goal before that was off a weird angle that could be forgiven. Vejmelka also played the two prior games including a 49-save game against the Carolina Hurricanes. He needed rest and appearing in three straight games against some of the best teams in the league isn’t easy.
Ingram on the other hand didn’t look great at all. While the penalty kill and defense in front of him didn’t help him, his play needs to be better. It’s not just Monday night’s game either. Ingram has struggled the whole season. He now has a .871 save percentage (SV%) and a 3.61 goals-against average (GAA) which are awful stats.
The issue is that we know Ingram can play way better. In the prior two seasons, he posted a .907 SV% on a worse Arizona Coyotes team. He is now 13 games into the season and it’s not working for him right now. It’s hard to break out of a slump if you’re a goaltender but if Utah wants any chance to be competitive and try to make the playoffs, they need him at his best.
A Struggle for the Special Teams
You could point to a variety of things in Utah’s game last night that cost them the win. Structure and composure both hampered the team and caused a lot of giveaways. However, special teams once again were a thorn in Utah’s side.
Utah’s power play was awful and there’s no getting around that. They had seven opportunities to score with the man advantage and they scored on none of them. That is not a key to success, it is a sign that things need to be switched up.
It doesn’t help that a lot of the players on Utah’s offense are currently in offensive droughts. Lawson Crouse hasn’t scored a single point since Oct. 24 against the Colorado Avalanche. Nick Schmaltz is having one of the worst starts to a season in his career with zero goals right now. Barrett Hayton only has had two points since Oct. 16. Even Clayton Keller hasn’t scored a single goal in almost a month.
On the penalty kill, Utah was okay. They went one for three and looked decent at points but with an awful power play, you need to balance it out with a great penalty kill. Unfortunately for Utah, that didn’t happen on Monday.
In their past 12 games, Utah has only won three of them. It hasn’t looked good at all. Whatever the team is doing needs to change because results are not coming. While blame can be placed on the coaching staff, it’s a whole team issue. There are players that have stepped up in the past month like Michael Kesselring and Nick Bjugstad who are trying their best, but it seems like there are a lot of players that aren’t playing up to their potential right now and that is a big problem. Something needs to give because Utah is arguably better than what their record shows.
Utah now falls below .500, sporting a 7-8-3 record. After winning just one of their games on their three-game home stretch, they’ll return to the road to play the Boston Bruins on Thursday. The Bruins are another team that hasn’t played up to its potential. They are 8-9-3 this season and are coming off a very disappointing 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
