“Washington” suffered a disaster without Ovechkin, goalkeeper Samsonov missed a curious goal

American hockey fans are completely in vain accused Alexander Ovechkin Like Toronto goalkeeper Eric Kjellgren did in his last game when he tripped him with a stick and the Big Eight hit the boards with his shoulder and head, unable to get off the ice for a while and ending the meeting ahead of schedule.

“Ovechkin tried to take a bullet! His shoulder was straight as he pointed to his watch with his left hand and threw his helmet at her. He did not return to the ice as he thought his team would win 3-1. He’s a total jerk!” – someone Dwayne Stephenson wrote on Twitter.

However, the Washington forward still did not act and missed the home game against the New York Islanders, which immediately showed how much the capital lacked the Russian captain.

The Capitals were honored with just one goal at the start of the match: Conor Shiri opened the goal in the tenth minute after passes from Marcus Johansson and Nick Jensen. But that was the end of Washington’s strife.

Without Ovechkin, the offensive acuity of the team was greatly reduced, and the execution of the majority became simply terrible:

“Washington” played four times with a numerical advantage, but not only did not manage to score, but also ridiculously conceded in one of the divisions (but more on that later).

Instead of the Big Eight, 21-year-old Canadian Connor McMichael came out to play, in line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson. As a result, none of the leaders were able to truly prove themselves.

A separate disappointment was Russian goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov, who tried all season to win the race against Czech goalkeeper Vitek Vanechek, but was more convinced that it would not be Caps’ debut.

In this game, Samsonov missed three goals from long-range shots.

In the 17th minute, Ryan Pulok nearly took a shot at the blue line and blazed the Russian goalkeeper (1:1).

It was repeated on the 43rd by Noah Dobson (2:1). It’s worth noting that it was closer to the target – not on the blue line, but in the middle of the zone – but it still wasn’t a blank shot. Samsonov again did not save.

Just five minutes later, the Russian goalkeeper conceded the most ridiculous goal of the game and possibly the entire NHL season. Worse still, the Capitals were in the majority at this point.

The islanders threw the puck out of their nets to get a breather from Washington’s attacks. The bullet went out of Samsonov’s door, but the defender Dmitry Orlov and the goalkeeper went so imposingly to pick him up that they were under pressure from their only opponent – striker Casey Cizikas, and lost control of the puck.

The Canadian got into a tough fight with Orlov and collapsed on the ice. Now that moment seemed exhausted, but Samsonov made an assist again with his actions:

For some reason, he moved away from the menacing Sisikas, made a full rotation around his axis (apparently he believed that the bullet had already flown somewhere), and from a prone position the Canadian at that time sent the puck to him by the collar!

In the 56th minute, Anders Li finished the game with a shot from five meters (4:1). Samsonov again could not do anything.

It is now clear that the Russian goalkeeper will start his NHL playoff series on the bench. This is as obvious as the fact that without Ovechkin, Washington’s offensive has largely lost its effectiveness and the entire team is in a fighting spirit and there is no substitute for the Big Eight yet.

The Russian goalkeeper of the islanders, Ilya Sorokin, was recognized as the best player of the match. He saved 32 out of 33 shots and contributed greatly to the victory of the team that managed to break the five match (!) losing streak.

After that loss, “Washington” remained in fourth place in the Capital Division, which sent it to meet the “Florida Panthers”, the strongest team of the NHL regular season, already in the first round of the playoffs.

You’ll have to go around the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are currently one point ahead of Caps but playing more games, to get to third place and find a slightly more suitable opponent.

The Capitals have only two games left to complete the mission – against the same Islanders and Rangers (both away).