“[Andersen] has had our back this whole series, it’s about time we helped him out a little bit,” Seth Jarvis said how the entire Hurricanes’ locker room was trying to rally behind their goalie, Frederik Andersen. With that, the Carolina forward made it clear that in Game 5 against the Washington Capitals, the team would step onto the ice determined to take some of the load off of their goalie. And, as it turned out, that was exactly what they did as the visitors decimated the Caps 3-1 to eliminate the latter from the playoffs. Logan Thompson, on the other hand, didn’t have his best day at the office.

Just days ago, the Edmonton Oilers’ Stuart Skinner noted how important the goalie is for a team’s hopes of winning matches. “That’s a goalie’s job, just to give your team a chance to win every night,” Skinner said. But for Logan Thompson, making 18 saves (same as his Canes’ counterpart) wasn’t enough to keep the Capitals in Stanley Cup contention. Obviously, the 28-year-old wasn’t happy with himself.

The scores were tied at 1-1 late into the third period, and overtime almost felt like a certainty. But then disaster struck. Svechnikov’s goal with just 1:59 left on the clock broke the deadlock. And ultimately, it was Seth Jarvis’ empty-net goal with 2.61 seconds remaining that sealed Washington’s fate. In an X post by the Washington Capitals’ beat reporter, Sammi Silber, from May 16, Logan Thompson’s post-match statements were shared.

“It’s my job to find the lane and get my eyes on i and he sifted it through,” the Capitals’ star goalie said, “It was a terrible goal to give up to end a season, and I’ve got to wear that.” With that, Thompson also noted that being an adult, it was only the right thing to make himself accountable for whatever went down in the rink tonight.

Maybe his sadness can be comprehended better by taking a look at Thompson’s stats from the regular season. Among the 43 games he played for Washington, the goalie won 31. With a 2.49 GAA and a .910 save%, Logan was undoubtedly one of the best between the pipes in the entire league. The emphatic form didn’t change much in the postseason either (2.41 GAA, .917 save%). Obviously, with the Caps out of the Stanley Cup race, the Washington star feels things could have been different if he were a little more proactive to thwart the Canes’ shots.

In an earlier post, Silber had also noted that Thompson looked “visibly distraught” after allowing Svechnikov’s shot (his eighth goal of the playoffs) to fly past him. He did not have any excuses, and it’s not like he got his gloves stuck in his pad this time as well.

But was today’s result that surprising? Probably not.

Logan Thompson might not be the only one to blame

The Washington Capitals came into the playoffs by clinching the top seed in the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference. Their dominance kept on showing in the postseason as the Caps managed to trample over the Montreal Canadiens in Round 1, 4-1, to take the series. However, as Carbery’s boys took on their divisional colleagues in the second stage, it was a very different scenario.

The Carolina Hurricanes, who finished the regular season behind Washington, immediately looked like the better team from Game 1. In the first game of the seven-game series, the Capitals squandered an early lead, made possible thanks to Aliaksei Protas’ first-ever NHL postseason goal, and ultimately allowed the Canes to secure victory. The fans could hardly believe that the team that has the likes of Alex Ovechkin could even manage to do that.

But things looked somewhat hopeful after Washington tied things by winning Game 2. And yet, the Caps’ Tom Wilson couldn’t help but note that battling against the Hurricanes wasn’t an easy thing to do. Keeping up with Wilson’s thoughts, Washington fell like a house of cards in the next three straight games as they struggled to register shots on goal and were even outmatched physically.

During all this time, Logan Thompson did his best to keep the opponents at bay. With a minimum of .857 save%, the goalie wasn’t all too shabby against the Hurricanes in the series. But, as they say, it is what it is. Thompson still has a long road ahead of him. With a heartbreaking end to the season, can Logan find it in himself to move on and show his worth in the coming years? What do you think? Tell us!