In their final regular season home game of 2024-25, the Caps dropped a 4-1 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets, their second setback at the hands of the Jackets this weekend.
Washington was on the wrong end of a 7-0 thumping in Columbus on Saturday afternoon, so in the wake of Sunday’s defeat, they were able to point to a higher compete level, more puck possession and a better overall performance in second of the two losses.
While Sunday’s game did look better, Saturday’s contest set the bar quite low.
“I thought we played well for the most part,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Controlled play, out-chanced them significantly, had the puck the majority of the game. So, it’s a positive.”
A day after the Jackets got the jump on the Caps in Columbus by scoring on their first shot of the game, the Caps returned the favor when Alex Ovechkin took a sublime feed from Dylan Strome on the right half wall and swept a shot past Columbus goalie Jet Greaves for a 1-0 Washington lead at 1:10 of the first.
But while Zach Werenski’s opening salvo on Saturday resulted in the floodgates opening for seven Columbus goals, the Caps couldn’t come close to matching that offensive bounty.
A few minutes after the midpoint of the opening period, Werenski again scored the Jackets’ first goal of the game, a center point shot that tied the game at 1-1 at 13:54.
During a Columbus power play early in the middle frame, the Caps were denied a chance to regain the lead when Greaves made a great save on Lars Eller from in tight, off a nice feed from Connor McMichael.
Less than a minute later, that save loomed even larger. Tom Wilson had a pass slip off his stick blade in the slot, and Columbus center Adam Fantilli quickly collected it and ripped it past Charlie Lindgren to give the Jackets a 2-1 lead at 4:39.
Starting both ends of a set of back-to-back games for the first time in his NHL career – and playing for the fourth time in five nights, including a start for AHL Cleveland last week – Greaves was again sharp, as he has been in all three of his career starts against Washington, all of which have come this season.
He protected the precarious one-goal cushion with strong stops on Ryan Leonard and on Ovechkin in the back half of the second, and stopped all 29 shots the Caps sent his way after Ovechkin’s early marker.
In three starts against the Caps this season, Greaves has stopped 86 of 89 shots.
“It’s been fun,” says Greaves of his heavy recent workload. “Playing a lot of hockey is always fun. A lot of meaningful games this time of year, so we’ve been enjoying it.”
Down just a goal heading into the third, Washington not only wasn’t able to muster the equalizer, it dug the deficit just a bit deeper.
Fantilli struck again from the slot at 1:57 of the third, finishing a fine play from Kent Johnson, who drew Lindgren out of position by carrying across the top of the paint, then feeding a wide open Fantilli, who had a wide-open net.
With just under five minutes left, a Strome turnover inside the Washington line resulted in an unassisted Pavel Voronkov goal that accounted for the 4-1 final.
As Sunday’s game wore on, the Caps generated more offensive zone time, and they also generated more time with possession, but they couldn’t parlay that into goals.
“At this time of the year, it’s hard,” says Wilson. “To generate in the [offensive] zone, you’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to get to the net, you’ve got to get to get to the dirty areas, you’ve got to cut back and get the legs moving, and to just work for second pucks and thirds.
“We’ve – at times throughout the year – been one of the most dominant teams in the [offensive] zone. But at this time of year, it’s going to be hard. That’s a desperate hockey team we just played, and we’ve just got to find a way to dig in in the [offensive] zone and pump our legs and get to the dirty areas, and to generate some more around the crease.
“I just don’t think we did a good enough job making it tough on their goalie the last 24 hours.”
Sunday’s win keeps the Jackets’ faint playoff pulse alive; they’ve got to win their last two games and they need Montreal to wilt in regulation in each of its remaining games as well.
“We’re trying to get into the playoffs,” says Jackets coach Dean Evason. “We know where we’re at. I’ve told you guys before, some guys watch, some guys don’t. But I don’t know what you’d have to be to be to not know where we’re at.
“Everybody knows we have to win, so we’re conducting ourselves like that. We’re playing hard every night, trying to get two points every night to get where we want to be, and that’s in the playoffs.”
