‘We Gave Everything & It Was Enough’: What Capitals Said After Win Over Oilers

The shorthanded Washington Capitals faced a tall task against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, as they went into that tilt without three top-4 defensemen and their starting goaltender. And in the end, they still found a way to win.

Aliaksei Protas, Charlie Lindgren and more stepped up as Washington pulled off a huge 3-2 win to shut down Edmonton and get two more points on their six-game road trip.

Here’s what the team had to say about the win.

FULL TAKEAWAYS: Everything To Know From Washington Capitals 3-2 Win Over Edmonton Oilers

Aliaksei Protas

On his drop-pass to Dowd on the breakaway: “I knew him and Hath were gonna be skating, gonna be help me, and I realize it was like 3-on-2 because one defenseman was on me and I knew I saw that one was on Hath. So I knew the other was wide open so I just drop it… no he wasn’t calling for that. But breakaway, I don’t need that, I’ll just drop it to Nic. I knew he was gonna coming.”

On how important the win is for Washington: “Yes for sure. We needed that win. Now it’s time to find the consistency to win the games and keep it rolling”

Nic Dowd

On his goal and Protas’ play: “I didn’t say a word… honestly i gave it to Pro and I’m like, ‘Oh, awesome. Another breakaway, he’s gonna bury this one.’ And then yeah, he just made a great play and I was just kind of following it up and it came right back to me. He was on his backhand and I thought he maybe got caught, but it was an unbelievable play by him.”

On the effort: “It was huge… throughout the lineup, everybody played really well. Our special teams was great. And then Chuck was the best player tonight.”

On finishing with 50 shots on goal and how key that was to winning: “Guys were shooting a lot of pucks from a lot of different areas. Every now and then, we have a lot of high-end guys that like to make plays and hold onto pucks and value possession. I know that’s been our MO for a long time, but I hink it’s a good mix, right? Tonight, you shoot a puck and it creates a little bit of chaos right away.

“And then I think it spreads everyone out. And then it gives our team not only possession but it kind of gives guys more space to create at that point because defensemen are a little bit out of position after a shot. It’s hard to react to those, so I think putting a lot of rubber on net tonight, it did that and we were able to finally continue to hold some possession.”

Lars Eller

On Washington pulling out a win with the Capitals being shorthanded: “We got so many guys out. We haven’t had that many wins in this building, so tough place to come into. And we gave everything we had and it was enough today.”

On the Capitals’ offense rolling: “It was nice. I think we were playing some of that to our identity with long, good forechecks, forcing some turnovers and having some long time in the zone, cycling, long attacks, that’s the stuff we’re doing when we’re playing our best. I think we saw some of that today so a lot of positives.”

On seeing a goal finally go in: “I felt like our line, we’ve had opportunities to score one, two goals so many games, and we just haven’t really been rewarded. Like [Anthony Mantha] has had like, I don’t know, five breakaways in the last two weeks. It felt like it was coming. I think we have a lot more to give still. But it’s always a good feeling to get on the board.”

On the relentless effort and rally despite going down twice: “I think just kind of stay the course. talk about what we had to do and talk about ourselves and not focus too much on the oppositions. It was a really good way for us to win with being tied and really [having] to work for it. It was not easy today, so it was a really good way for us to win the game.”