After a disastrous road trip, the Washington Capitals hoped to snap their four-game losing streak by walloping the Phoenix Coyotes. It wasn’t a wallop truly, but let’s just be thankful for the win.
John Carlson’s turnover on the power play set up Radim Vrbata for a shorthanded breakaway and the game’s first goal. Lauri Korpikoski converted the penalty shot he earned from another shorthanded breakaway. John Carlson deflected off a Coyote to get the Caps on the board.
Then a red balloon floated eerily above the ice like an angel of mercy.
Cody Eakin scored the second goal of his career with another flukey deflection, and we were tied. Early in the third, Nick Backstrom scored the kind of greasy goal you could lubricate an engine with– 3-2. On a 5-on-3, Brooks Laich scored, screened by Troy Brouwer, to snap the Capitals’ power play drought. Korpokoski got an ugly rebound to keep it interesting. Caps beat Coyotes 4-3.
UPDATE: You knew it was coming. We’ve got a rally balloon shirt.
Hendricks vs Chipchura (Photo credit: Ann Heisenfelt)
Joe B suit of the night
But seriously: CRASH THE NET. It’s not just a cute slogan; it’s a flawless tactic that yields goals, smiles, and normal blood pressure. Three of the Caps’ four goals tonight owe themselves to net crashy-ness.
People. There was a red balloon on the ice. In case you weren’t sure about the absurdity of the Capitals, there was a freaking red balloon on the ice. It lingered for long minutes, just out of reach like an almost-sneeze. Once the balloon descended, punctured by a zebra, the Caps found their legs. Their newfound hustle was surely a testament to the deflated bag of gas, their goal-scoring panache was definitely a tribute to the bag of air. Their coach’s 200th NHL win owes its legacy to a latex sack powered by increased air pressure and lowered air density.
Which leaves us with one question: How many of you guys are gonna throw balloons on the ice on Wednesday?
The Capitals have a crazy Thanksgiving week. We’ve got the Jets on Wednesday, the Rags on Friday, and a trip up to exotic Buffalo on Saturday. If this game were a loss, if there were no rally balloon, how miserable would this week be? But friends, there is hope. There is balloon.
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.
Share On