Chimmer with the game-winner. Now, let’s go eat a Turkey dinner. (Photo credit: Evan Vucci)
Two nights ago, Alex Semin was banished to the press box, a healthy scratch for the first time since his rookie year.
Five minutes and twenty-three seconds into the first period, redemption was his. Sasha Minor took Alex Ovechkin’s wizardly backhand feed and fired a rocket past Ondrej Pavelec on the 2-on-1 to open the scoring. The mustachioed Andrew Ladd got one back for the Jets, however, when he and Nik Antropov worked their on 2-on-1 magic. But, before I could even finish swearing — 12 seconds later in other words — Brooks Laich set up Jason Chimera at the top of the crease to once again give the home team the lead. Keeping with the back-and-forthiness, Kyle Wellwood tied the game up for Winnipeg again just three minutes later. Birthday boy Nicky Backstrom, though, didn’t let that stand when early in the second frame he whacked one five-hole on Pavelec to give the Caps a 3-2 lead. But the Jets didn’t run out of fuel there when, with eight minutes left in the third, Bryan Little wristed one past Tomas Vokoun to tie it for the gazillionth time. To overtime we went, and that’s where Chimmer shined once again — with an awesome celebration to boot. Ballgame. Caps beat Jets, 4-3.
- Even though Alan May refuses to believe in its cosmic powers, the Caps have now improved to 2-0 since the bizarre appearance of #RallyBalloon. ALL HAIL RALLY BALLOON. Have you gotten your shirt yet?
- Dmitry Orlov was so good, he gets his own post. In 14:31 TOI, Dima had two blocked shots, a takeaway, a few highlight reel hits, and curiously no time on the power-play. Most importantly, he also recorded his first NHL point, an assist on Nicklas Backstrom’s second period goal. How have fans taken to the new Russian? RMNB’s Igor Kleyner reports that the twenty-year old got the loudest roar when the starting line-ups were announced tonight. He deserves all ten legs of John Madden’s Turducken tomorrow and two rooms in Alex Ovechkin’s bachelor pad.
- The Capitals new team leader in goals scored, Jason Chimera, (wait, did I really just type that) is in beast mode, slaying all of his non-believers with his magical composite hockey stick. Chimmer has been in the right place at the right time all year and now has hands softer than my girlfriend’s rear after she puts on her womanly body lotion (I really hope she doesn’t read this). His OTGWG was awesome…
- But Jeff Schultz‘s breakup of a Winnipeg 2-on-1 break was awesomer. Sarge, who has been getting a ton of negative pixels lately for poor play, finally did something right.
- Troy Brouwer had 10 hits.
- Mike Knuble, who hasn’t scored in 10 straight games, got jobbed out of a goal tonight. After Matt Hendricks was pushed into Pavelec, the officiating crew waved off his backhander because of incidental contact with the goalie. I booed my TV. Did you?
- Finally, I’m proud to announce Alex Semin‘s consecutive games streak of minor penalties ended tonight at seven. I’ll drink to that!
What a game. The Capitals stepped up big time tonight. They killed off a 5-on-3, they outshot Winnipeg 37 to 25, and also imposed their will on their opposition. In the Capitals last meeting with the Jets, they did not compete. In fact, Bruce Boudreau was furious when they only tallied five hits in total. Tonight, according to friend-of-the-blog Jack Anderson, they had 13 hits in the first and 35 total — outhitting their opponents by eight.
Let’s hope that the Capitals can continue to build from tonight and can have similar strong outings on Friday and Saturday against the Rangers and Sabres respectively.
Have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow everybody. Look out for some new RMNB t-shirts on Black Friday at discounted prices! I’m so shameless.
Additional reporting by Chris Gordon and Peter Hassett.
