The Washington Post - 12.11.2019

together.

Callahan offered praise for the

way Haskins played during his

first start, a 24-9 loss at the

Buffalo Bills on nov. 3, while also

acknowledging that the team’s

1-8 record m akes t he timing right

for the first-year passer to get

valuable game experience.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence

in Dwayne,” Callahan said. “He’s

worked hard. He’s smart. He

studies, prepares. so this will be

a great opportunity for him go-

ing forward.”

Case Keenum, who has started

seven games this season, will be

the second-string quarterback.

Colt McCoy will remain the

third-stringer. Callahan said the

see redskins on d5

“It’s the perfect time to improve, and we

cannot be perfect every time so sometimes we

have to go through these types of games, you

know,” Kuznetsov said. “But I liked the way we

responded in the third.”

The Capitals (13-2-4) trailed 3-1 entering the

third period before Kuznetsov scored his

second goal of the night to trim their deficit to

KLMNO

SPORTS

tuesday, november 12 , 2019. washingtonpost.com/sports M2 d

BY JESSE DOUGHERTY

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — By the
time Mike Rizzo arrived in Carls-
bad, Calif., for last year’s general
managers meetings, he had al-
ready added two players to step
ahead of a slow-moving market.
Rizzo, the Washington nationals’
general manager, had made Trev-
or Rosenthal the first free agent
signing of the 2018 offseason.
That came just weeks after the
nationals traded for reliever Kyle
Barraclough. If teams were wad-
ing into the winter — and 29 of
them were — Rizzo dived head-
first and started checking items
off a to-do list.
now, after winning the World
series, the nationals have n o
shortage of questions to address.
Their pace just promises to be
much steadier.
The GM meetings began at the
omni Resorts here Monday. The
nationals, just 12 days removed
from a title, arrived with holes to
fill at catcher, first base, second,
maybe third, maybe in their rota-
tion and definitely with their
bench and bullpen.
Rizzo ripped through a similar
situation a year ago, acquiring
those two relievers, then bringing
in Kurt suzuki, Yan Gomes,
see gm meetings on d3

This time,

Nats need

steady pace

i n o≠season

Katherine Frey/the Washington Post

capitals goalie ilya samsonov can’t stop coyotes forward conor garland’s winning shootout attempt during washington’s loss monday night at capital One arena.

one with 17:37 to play. After several chances

throughout the period, T. J. oshie finally

scored the tying goal with 1:16 left in regula-

tion. oshie appeared to score again with 2:46

to play in overtime, but he was ruled to have

been offside following a lengthy review, and

the Coyotes (10-6-2) went on score two times

in as many shootout attempts against Capitals

rookie goalie Ilya samsonov (32 saves) to win

it.

“Bit of a buzzkill there; we thought that we

did it,” forward Tom Wilson said. “But that is

the way it goes sometimes.... It shows the

character in the room to be able to come back,

and pretty proud of the guys to battle to the

end.”

The Capitals still managed to extend their

streak of earning at least one standings point

see capitals on d3

BY SAMANTHA PELL

When the Washington Capitals are at their

very best, evgeny Kuznetsov is always visible

when he is on the ice. From his smooth skating

to his cross-ice backhanded passes to his

uncanny ability to score from near-impossible

angles, the 27-year-old Russian forward has a

striking ability to impact a game.

He did it again Monday night in Washing-

ton’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes

at Capital one Arena, scoring the Capitals’

first two goals and nearly willing them to an

improbable come-from-behind victory after

they fell into an early three-goal deficit. But

the Capitals were unable to complete the

comeback, and their six-game winning streak

was snapped with their first loss since a

shootout defeat oct. 24 at edmonton.

Incomplete comeback

Capitals at flyers

tomorrow, 7:30 p.m., nBc sports network

Coyotes 4, Capitals 3 (so)

After erasing three-goal deficit,

Caps suffer first loss since Oct. 24

over the past few

years, the Los

Angeles Rams

have doubled as

the most

refreshing and

annoying winner

in the nFL.

They’re always up

to something bold: hiring

3 0-year-old sean McVay to be

their head coach, making trades

like a fantasy team owner,

spending as if money has an

expiration date. They’re fun.

They’re also iconoclasts who

can’t resist acting as though

they’re reimagining the way this

rigid league does business.

As welcome as their audacity

has been, even the most radical

nFL fan can tolerate only so

much deviation from the sport’s

conservative norm. After missing

the playoffs for 12 straight

seasons and bolting st. Louis for

Hollywood in 2016, the Rams

were due to capitalize on the

nFL’s parity-based system. In

posting a 24-8 record during the

2017 and 2018 seasons and

advancing to super Bowl LIII in

February, the Rams have

see brewer on d5

Rams’ investments were too big to fail, yet here they are at 5-4

Jerry

Brewer

don Wright/associated Press

with star running back todd gurley ii limited this season, the rams’ offense has been less dynamic.

BY CANDACE BUCKNER

The sunday afternoon scrim-
mage stopped, and the coach
called on the rookie. Moments
earlier, the Washington Wizards
were breezing through what has
felt most comfortable this season
— running the floor and scoring
effortlessly, albeit in four-on-four
matchups. But the abrupt stop
forced players to face their most
evident weakness after eight
games: defense.
“Rui [Hachimura] at the el-
bow,” Coach scott Brooks an-
nounced. “Who wants to stop
him?”
At various points during sun-
day’s practice, the Wizards used
this method of one-on-one basket-
ball: just one player trying to score
against a teammate determined
not to be embarrassed in front of
the whole team.
It wasn’t the first time this sea-
son Brooks has halted practice to
hold an impromptu Thunder-
dome. Judging by the Wizards’
recent defensive performances, it
see wizards on d4

Wizards are

pulling out

all the stops

to fix leaky ‘D’

BY KAREEM COPELAND

The Washington Redskins will
have two key pieces of their
offensive future in the lineup
sunday against the new York
Jets.
Interim coach Bill Callahan on
Monday named rookie Dwayne
Haskins the Redskins’ starting
quarterback for the rest of the
season, and Washington will
have running back Derrius Guice
available for just the second
game of his young career follow-
ing his return from a knee injury
that landed him on injured
r eserve.
The two players — taken with
premium picks in back-to-back
drafts — are considered potential
future centerpieces of the of-
fense, and sunday will mark the
first time the duo will play

Redskins’ Haskins is slated

to start the final seven games

Jets at redskins

sunday, 1 p.m., Wttg-5

Wizards at Celtics
tomorrow, 7:30 p.m., nBcsW

baseball

Mets slugger Pete alonso,

astros dh yordan alvarez

are rookies of the year. d3

pro football

in a Monday night classic,

seahawks hand 49ers

first loss in overtime. d5