The puck bounced, flipped, dangled and dropped among some Washington Capitals players’ sticks in their defensive zone. Nobody could quite get possession of it, and the Nashville Predators eventually took advantage, setting up the ninth and final goal of the night.
Yannick Weber’s game-winning goal even brushed off Michal Kempny and slightly changed direction — very fitting for a game that saw much stranger ways to score.
Washington erased a two-goal deficit thanks in part to a Predators own goal and took a lead into the second intermission, but sloppy play and weird bounces allowed the Predators to come back and win, 5-4.
Richard Panik finished with two goals and Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist for Washington (34-12-5, 73 points),
The goal was Ovechkin’s 693rd career tally, moving him into sole possession of ninth all-time — ahead of Steve Yzerman and just a goal behind Mark Messier for eighth.
But for a change, Ovechkin’s latest milestone was not the primary talking point after the game. After a good showing in their first game after the All-Star break, a 4-2 win at Montreal, the Capitals let two more standings points get away in frustrating fashion.
The captain agreed that the game contained some strange turns, but nobody would use that as an excuse.
“That’s hockey,” Ovechkin said. “You have to be ready for everything. It’s a tough bounce. You could see we were (down) 3-2 after first and we come back and get a lead and they come back. So, you go back and forth.”
With the Capitals ahead 4-3 in the third period and the Predators shorthanded, Braden Holtby collected the puck in the right corner and cleared it across the zone — but right to the stick of Nashville top-line center Ryan Johansen, who had just left the penalty box. Holtby got back to his net in time but couldn’t save Johansen’s shot.
“I just didn’t see him there,” Holtby said. “It was just bad awareness there. I was trying to do too much, I guess, trying to get in the play somehow and it’s just a play that can’t happen. It killed us.”
Reirden was unhappy with the move, too, and said Holtby’s game otherwise was “fine.” Holtby finished just 19 saves on 24 shots.
“Goalie playing the puck up on a power play is not part of our system, it’s not part of our design of how we break pucks out,” Reirden said. “That’s an unforced error.”
Panik opened scoring midway through the first period with a wrister, but the Predators responded with a quick goal and soon moved ahead 3-1. Mikael Granlund scored on a power play, just the second goal Washington’s penalty kill allowed in its previous 19 outings.
Nashville expanded the lead on an odd-man rush. Defenseman Roman Josi flipped a pass between John Carlson and Kempny to Rocco Grimaldi skating toward the net, and Grimaldi was able to beat Holtby.
But fortunes turned around quickly for Washington in part due to Predators’ carelessness. Before the period was out, goaltender Juuse Saros tried to recover the puck from behind his own net and pushed it toward an incoming Ovechkin, who potted it on an essentially empty net.
Nashville’s biggest mistake came in the middle frame. Nick Bonino stood by the left post of Saros’ net with the puck, and instead of trying to clear it up the ice, he botched a pass to his right that hit Saros’ skate and bounced through his five-hole. Panik was credited with the goal for being the Capital who touched it last.
Tom Wilson gave the Capitals the lead on a power-play goal, a neat rebound off a Lars Eller shot that was saved. Washington defended its lead early in the third until Holtby’s mistake. Both Jakub Vrana and Eller took penalties later in the period that hampered the Capitals’ chances to break the tie.
Center Nic Dowd said the Capitals were “right where we want to be, and that game should’ve been over,” before they let it get away.
“Definitely self-inflicted, which is a positive note,” he said. “That means we can fix it.”
Their next chance to do that is Friday at the Ottawa Senators — when Ilya Samsonov, not Holtby, is expected to start between the pipes.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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