“I didn’t know it went in until I saw Jordan Staal, ‘Staalsie’ coming with his arms up yelling at me,” said Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin. And how would he know? The puck went in between the legs of three skaters and ultimately Logan Thompson to give the Carolina Hurricanes the win in Game 1 of Round 2. The shot stunned the Capitals, who had struggled the entire match, into silence inside Capital One Arena.

Carolina forwards peppered Logan Thompson’s goal with a barrage of shots. Yet, it took the one from a defenseman to finally break the stalemate in overtime. To say Washington’s coach, Spencer Carbery, was upset about the performance would be an understatement. So when the media questioned the head coach about the Canes’ unbridled domination of the ice from the first buzzer, Coach Carbery made a bold statement.

“It wasn’t good, and that’s the bottom line. Our entire game was not good. And we’ll – like I said, we’ll regroup, and we’ll get ready for game two,” Carbery said during the post-game presser. The 43-year-old knows that the Canes succeeded in their game plan and dominated in the Washington Capitals’ half. So he was under no illusion that his team’s game plan failed tonight.

Washington’s coach was confident about their chances coming into Game 1. Unfortunately, the Canes absolutely shattered that confidence. Caps’ goalie Logan Thompson had to face 12 shots in the first period. How many did Frederik Andersen have to make? Thompson’s counterpart saved 13 out of the 14 shots the Caps fired at him, but here’s the catch. The Caps could only muster 14 shots on goal through the whole game, while the Hurricanes took a total of 33 on-target attempts.

“I thought we would be a lot better than that than we were tonight,” the Washington Capitals coach told the media. Even Caps’ players came off the ice with similar takeaways. “They were pressuring us all over the ice,” said Dylan Strome. Thankfully, there was something the Capitals don’t need to change.

It wasn’t all bad for the Washington Capitals

While Washington struggled to get anything going on the ice, Logan Thompson did a phenomenal job in front of the goal, saving 31 shots out of 33. In fact, he played so well that the goaltender amassed a better save percentage (.939 SV%) than Anderson (.929 SV%), who conceded only one goal. Even Carbery couldn’t help but praise Thompson.

“I thought he was fantastic,” said the Caps’ coach about his goaltender. Thompson raised concerns after limping off the ice during the Round 1 series with the Habs. However, Thompson didn’t just return quickly. The 28-year-old has been minding the net like he never even got injured. Another standout among the Washington Capitals was Aliaksei Protas.

This was only Protas’s second game with the Capitals after suffering a skate-blade cut to the foot. Yet, what made the goal special wasn’t just because the 24-year-old scored in his second game after sitting out 10 games, but because it was his first NHL playoff goal. A milestone moment that helped Protas put his team in the lead, albeit temporarily, while the Canes pressured relentlessly.

Yet, what that didn’t mask was the Washington Capitals’ serious shortcomings. The Canes even beat them in the physical aspect, out-hitting the Caps squad 44-31. Dylan Strome said it best: “We’ve got to find a way to break it. I felt like we didn’t play our style of hockey tonight,” said the forward. Now, only time will tell if Washington’s hockey team finds the answer by Game 2.