The Washington Capitals fell to the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 (OT) in their second-round opener.
While the score appeared close, the process stats were not. The Hurricanes outshot the Capitals 33 to 14, out-attempted them 94 to 34, and out-hit them 44 to 31. Carolina also had the puck in the offensive zone nearly double the Capitals: 33:28 to 16:51 (per @MikeKellyNHL).
After watching such a frustrating performance from his team, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery didn’t have much to say in his three-minute presser with the media.
This is the full transcription of the questions and answers from Carbery’s press conference.
Q. “Spencer, you talked about how well you know this opponent. Is that exactly the kind of game you expected them to play, this style?”
Spencer Carbery: “Yeah.”
Q. “Coach, are you at all surprised by the lack of success just keeping it in the offensive zone, outshot 33 to 14?”
Spencer Carbery: “From our standpoint? Our ability to get on their half? Yeah, for sure. I thought we would be a lot better than we were tonight. We’ll regroup, and we’ll have to be better in Game 2.”
Q. “Tom (Wilson) said he felt like you guys were a little bit off all night. Would you agree with that assessment?”
Spencer Carbery: “Yeah. Yeah, that’s accurate.”
Q. “We know it’s a seven-game series. What do you tell your squad after a game like tonight? What’s the message to them?”
Spencer Carbery: “Well, we’ll have to talk about the things that have to change for Game 2. And so there’s a lot of Xs and Os, there’s a lot of physicality stuff, there’s a lot of puck battle stuff. We’ll narrow it down because you can obviously go down about 20 different avenues from tonight. We’ll narrow it down and give them a concrete plan of what needs to improve and how it needs to look. Then we’ll get to work on it.”
Q. “Did they just out-execute you guys as far as breakouts and doing all the little things that go into winning a game?”
Spencer Carbery: “Vogs, if we sat here and went through the whole game from breakouts to get into the neutral zone to forecheck to wall play, we could… It wasn’t good, and that’s the bottom line. Our entire game was not good. Like we said, we’ll regroup and get ready for Game 2.”
Q. “Can you at least talk about LT’s play?”
Spencer Carbery: “I thought he was fantastic.”
Q. “Spencer, you mentioned a litany of issues, but the physicality one, I think going into overtime, they out-hit you 42 to 30. Was that a little surprising to you, considering you had that advantage coming into this series?”
Spencer Carbery: “Well, you’re chasing a lot, right? So, that’s even surprising because they had the puck so much. When you don’t have the puck, usually you’re initiating contact to try and get it back. But like I said, establishing a forecheck is usually where you get most of your contact, and that was essentially nonexistent.”
Q. “What went wrong in overtime?”
Spencer Carbery: “The first four shifts, we couldn’t get on their half. You’re back on your heels, D-zone start, D-zone start, D-zone start. They throw a puck to the net and it goes in.”
