One could make the argument that yesterday’s game was lost less than one minute into the game, when Elias Pettersson put the Canucks up 1-0 at :59 of the first period. Hell, one could make the argument it was lost the second the puck dropped, because one team was ready to go and one team was decidedly not. Amazingly, it was the more rested team that fell into that latter category, while the Canucks were playing their third game in four days and were down to 10 forwards by the end of the first period.
Alas.
But at that point, when Pettersson scored early, the Caps were still only down 1-0 for most of the opening frame and could have easily gotten their butts in gear to tie it up at any point.