AP photo
When the Hurricanes’ bus left the hotel for the arena Tuesday night, it was headed, for unexplained reasons, for Virginia, not the Verizon Center downtown — the wrong way.
That's the direction the Hurricanes are headed, too, after losing to the Capitals for the second time in eight days.
The teams are tied atop the Southeast Division with 90 points with two games to play, and while the Hurricanes have the tiebreaker edge — wins — the Caps have all the momentum after the 4-1 win.
Washington has won nine of its past 10 games while Carolina has lost consecutive games for the first time in two months. And both of Carolina’s opponents this week — Tampa tonight, Florida on Friday — visit Washington 24 hours later, a small difference, but at this time of year, isn’t everything?
Justin Williams (briefly — see below), Ray Whitney and Bret Hedican were all back in the lineup for the Canes but the game was a disaster for the Hurricanes even after they got off the bus in the right place.
Playing on some of the worst ice in recent NHL history — riddled with cracks like a windshield after a wreck — the Caps scored twice early, then answered a Carolina goal with a power-play goal during a controversial second-period sequence.
Alex Ovechkin took exception to Eric Staal poking at Huet’s glove after a save on Scott Walker on a short-handed two-on-one and threw Staal into the boards.
But the Capitals remained on the power play because a coincidental minor was called on Niclas Wallin in the brawl that followed, and Alexander Semin scored to make it 3-1.
Ovechkin applied the coup de grace with 3:36 to play, spinning at the left circle to one-time a loose puck past Cam Ward for his 63rd goal.
“Tonight was a frustrating night,” Ward said. “It didn’t seem like things were going our way. We have to realize that when calls aren’t going our way, that’s out of our hands and we have to deal with it.”
The Canes are still in control of their own destiny, but can’t count on any help from Washington. The Canes have two games left, Wednesday against the Lightning and Friday against the Panthers, and if they want to win the Southeast Division they know they almost certainly have to win both.
“As far as I’m concerned, we need to move on,” Hurricanes forward Erik Cole said. “We’ve got a game tomorrow night, two games left in the season at home, we need to play well and we need to win ‘em both.”
Other thoughts on Tuesday’s game:
• Williams was back in the lineup after missing 43 games with a torn ACL but not for long. He left with seven minutes to play in the first period after wrenching his back and is not expected to play against Tampa.
• Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette was irate at the sequence of calls in the second period that saw Ovechkin go essentially unpunished for his run at Staal — and that was before Bret Hedican was called for roughing for a mild shove behind the net after an Ovechkin hit.
Certainly, that sequence raised some legitimate questions about star treatment for Ovechkin.
Now, did Staal embellish his collision with the boards, as the Capitals' broadcast apparently claimed? They showed a slo-mo replay that those who saw it said made it look like Staal leaped backward into the boards.
But in any case, Ovechkin skated from the top of the faceoff circle to the goal line and left his feet to hit Staal. And the issue wasn’t whether Ovechkin deserved a penalty — he did — but the fact that Wallin picked up a penalty out of the scrum while no Capitals player did.
A laughable third-period goaltender interference penalty on Ryan Bayda after he was checked into Huet by Mike Green aroused no reaction from Laviolette, who had clearly given up any hope of getting a call at that point.
The Carolina bench did pick up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty later in the third for “abusive language.”
“Obviously, we didn’t play our best game tonight,” Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley said. “We didn’t do ourselves any favors by taking some undisciplined penalties. When you take a four-minute high-sticking penalty like we did, obviously it hurts. In order for us to play our game, we need to stay out of the box and play five-on-five.”
The Capitals went 2-for-7 on the power play, the Hurricanes 0-for-4 — only the fifth time in the past 22 games the opposition has had more power-play opportunities than the Canes. Carolina is 2-2-1 in those games.
• It has to be noted that one of Tuesday’s referees was Brad Watson, who called the Canes for two diving penalties in a Oct. 31 loss at Florida — someone who is clearly not on Laviolette’s Christmas-card list to begin with.
Watson, not Dave Jackson, called the bench minor on Carolina in the third period. And Watson, along with Bill McCreary, is scheduled to work Wednesday’s game in Raleigh.
• Given everything that happened, you have to wonder whether Laviolette’s decision not to dress Wade Brookbank played into the Capitals’ hands. They were the more physical team from the start.
That’s second-guessing, because the imperative was to get Williams and Whitney back in the lineup. But there were more than a few comments on this blog suggesting scratching Brookbank was a mistake.
• With Williams out, will Matt Cullen be back in the lineup? He didn’t travel with the team and hasn’t had a full-contact practice yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he skated Wednesday morning in hopes of playing. That’s just a hunch, not based on any inside info.
• I’ve seen plenty of games in this building with all the atmosphere of a shopping-mall parking garage (which is, ironically enough, where the Capitals practice now), but Tuesday wasn’t one of them.
“I have never seen the building like that,” Capitals defenseman Mike Green said. “It was great to see, and I hope the fans here enjoy it, but as a group, collectively, we haven’t done anything yet.”
• Cristobal Huet is now 5-2-1 in 10 career regular-season games against Carolina, with a 2.16 goals-against average.
N&O
sports writer Luke DeCock tracks the Carolina Hurricanes.
