Jakub Vrana leaned over in dejection on the bench, an image emblematic of the Washington Capitals’ aggravation following a 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Islanders in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Preliminary at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Sunday.
The Capitals forward had an opportunity to win the video game minutes earlier on a breakaway at 4: 04 of overtime, but Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov saved Vrana’s wrist shot and rebound attempt. Vrana watched Islanders center Mathew Barzal score the winning objective at 4: 28 to provide New York a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
” Eventually, it’s their gamer executing a play and scoring an objective,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. “We had a possibility right prior to that, and we don’t transform. That’s overtime hockey in the playoffs. You get your opportunities, and they were able to transform on theirs.”
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Islanders highlights]
That’s happened throughout the series. The Islanders have actually created more opportunities and converted on key ones. The Capitals have not created or moneyed in enough.
So, Washington faces the possibility of being swept by New York and its previous coach Barry Trotz, who left after assisting the Capitals to the Stanley Cup in 2018.
Game 4 remains in Toronto, the center city in the East, on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, MSG, MSG , NBCSWA).
Groups with a 3-0 lead are 190 -4 (979 percent) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series. The Los Angeles Kings most recently won a best-of-7 series after losing the first 3 games, rallying to beat the San Jose Sharks in the 2014 Western Conference Preliminary. The Kings went on to win the Stanley Cup.
” Undoubtedly, we’re down 3-0, however you simply need to proceed,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said. “I understand it’s a hard scenario, however it’s not over. … We’re never ever going to stop thinking in it and we’re going to play. L.A. did it. We won the Cup when we were down 2-0 versus Columbus (in the preliminary in 2018), returning, and we’re going to try.”
Video: Islanders win Video game 3 in OT, take 3-0 series lead
Hounded by the Islanders defense set of Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock, Ovechkin was restricted to one shot on goal Sunday, and that didn’t come till 15 seconds into overtime. The Capitals finished with 23 shots on goal, including 18 at even strength.
New york city has held Washington to 5 goals in the series, two at even strength. Ovechkin scored both in a 5-2 loss in Game 2 on Friday.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the Capitals’ only objective in Video game 3 on the power play, beating Varlamov over the left shoulder from the ideal circle to connect it 1-1 at 5: 50 of the 2nd period.
” I think in order to have success in the playoffs, you need to create that overwhelming sensation for the other group and simply come at them in waves,” stated Washington forward Tom Wilson, who supplied a screen on Kuznetsov’s goal. “The goals don’t come off of one-offs where you score off the rush and things. Often, it’s zone time, it’s line after line going out there and making the other group tired, simply being unrelenting. I don’t believe for whatever reason we’ve done that yet.”
Wilson had a chance to provide the Capitals the lead on a shorthanded breakaway 11: 53 into the second period, however he had difficulty with a rolling puck and shot large left. That missed out on chance, in addition to the two in overtime by Vrana (who has no points in 6 video games after scoring an NHL career high 25 objectives during the regular season), appeared to suggest the Capitals may be pressing on the unusual quality opportunities they develop versus the Islanders’ thorough defense.
” I don’t believe there’s any reasons,” Wilson said. “Sometimes it’s unclean, however you have actually got to do whatever you can to put it in the internet. If we’re not producing a heap, when we do get our excellent appearances we have actually got to make them count, and clearly I would have liked to put that [shorthanded chance] in the web.”
Washington was second in the NHL in balancing 3.42 objectives per video game during the routine season. Including their 3 round-robin video games in Stanley Cup Qualifiers, the Capitals have actually scored 10 goals in 6 games, including six at even strength.
They have actually not scored more than 2 objectives in any postseason game.
” A minimum of we are getting those chances now where we weren’t in the first video game or more of the series and started to get more as the video game went on today,” Reirden stated. “And if you get enough of those and you believe in yourself and you think in your group and the ability level that we have, we are going to convert those. Now we are just all concentrated on getting one win here and moving on from there.”
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