Details proved to be the difference maker for the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
A plethora of missed shots and disconnected passes turned an early lead into a 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals.
“Low-event game, not much offence, a lot of missed shots, not much interior play,” said Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet. “We’re not attacking the interior and we missed so many chances or shots, a lot of shots.”
Despite the loss, Vancouver (42-18-8) remains atop the Western Conference standings.
The two points were crucial to Washington (32-25-9), who now sit one point out of the final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.
An opponent’s desperation shouldn’t be an excuse for the Canucks down the stretch, said Canucks forward J.T. Miller.
“Every single team we’re going to play moving forward is playing for something,” he said. “You’ve got guys playing for jobs, playing to win the division, playing to win the President’s Trophy, playing to get into the playoffs.
“There’s a reason for everybody to be playing hard this time of year. There are no easy games, and we’ve got to find a way to rise to the occasion a little bit better than we did in a game like today.”
Alex Ovechkin inched his way closer to the top of the history books, scoring his 19th of the season with the game-winning goal. Tom Smith also found the back of the net for Washington.
Brock Boeser had the lone tally for Vancouver.
Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren stopped 21-of-22 shots and Casey DeSmith made 22 saves for Vancouver.
The Canucks got on the board just 1:11 into Saturday’s game when Quinn Hughes launched a rocket from the faceoff circle and Boeser tipped it in through Lindgren’s legs for his team-leading 36th goal of the season.
“Right away they got us maybe on our heels a little bit. That’s a big, strong fast team over there. Obviously they potted one on the first shift there,” Lindgren said.
“That’s never the way you want to start a game but I thought after a few minutes, we got our feet under us and really did a good job from there on out. The second period was our best period for sure. We were all over them and one heck of an effort again.”
Washington stormed back in the second, outshooting the home side 14-5 across the period.
Moments after the Canucks were called for icing, the puck went off Wilson’s skate in front of the net and was collected by Ivan Miroshnichenko. He used a backhand pass to feed Wilson at the side of the net and the burly forward tapped it in at the 6:01 mark.
A minute and 53 seconds later, DeSmith came out of his crease, anticipating a shot from the slot. Instead, Connor McMichael found an unmarked Ovechkin stationed at the side of the net and the legendary Russian winger poked it in to put the Capitals up 2-1.
After a slow start to the campaign, Ovechkin has 11 goals in his last 20 outings. He now sits at 841 goals, 54 behind Wayne Gretzky on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
“The guy’s amazing,” Tocchet said. “Even at this age, he finds somehow to contribute. I’ve seen that guy score a lot of goals live.”
Saturday’s result was fitting considering that Capitals forward T.J. Oshie was playing his 1,000th NHL regular-season game. The feat was announced over the loud speaker during the game’s first TV timeout, drawing loud cheers from the crowd as the 37-year-ol forward waved from the bench.
Oshie nearly missed the game after leaving Washington’s morning skate with an upper-body injury. After getting some treatment, he was happy to celebrate the milestone with a victory.
“(The Canucks) had a little push to start, but other than that everyone worked extremely, extremely hard tonight and really poured their heart out so it was a character win for us,” Oshie said.
“This team just keeps finding a way. Our character keeps shining through and finding ways to just keep this thing alive, so it’s fun right now.”