Check out Alex Ovechkin’s buzzcut (Photo: Patrick McDermott)

The Washington Capitals and the Columbus Blue Jackets are division rivals now. Seeing as the last fifteen years of Caps rivalries in Southeast were pretty mild, that doesn’t mean much. Lumbus at Washington got off to a sleepy start, and by the time the pace picked up the Caps were already behind on the scoreboard. Some late-game dramatics from the summertime surprise we call Grabo got the Caps into overtime, where the Captain did his thing. You know how it is.

The first period happened and then it was over. I don’t remember much about it frankly.

The Capitals surrendered a shorty goal in the second as Troy Brouwer coughed up the puck to Brandon Dubinsky, who eluded Holtby’s poke check. Then Martin Erat fenced off the Lumbus D to set up John Carlson for a layup: tie game.

The Caps got their own shorty in the third when Joel Ward snatched up a hardaround and beat Bob. Lumbus locked it up at two as Jared Boll tapped in a long bomb. Mike Green and the top line gave Cam Atkinson a breakaway to take the lead, but Mikhail Grabovski tied it up using the mystical art of awesomesauce.

And then Ovi won it in overtime by crashing the goddamn net. Because he’s Ovi.

Caps beat Jackets 4-3 (Overtime)!

Shorties akimbo! That calls for a song.

• Tyutin is a fun word to say. Tyutin. Kind of related: Fedor Tyutin is pretty good.
• Tyutin. Heh. Still funny.
• Brandon Dubinsky‘s shorthanded goal was the third the Caps have given up this year. They previously gave up shorties to Colorado and Winnipeg. The image of Dubinsky waltzing away with the puck will be the last thing Troy Brouwer sees before he goes to bed tonight and the first thing he sees upon waking up.
• Martin Erat‘s effort on that second period goal was stunning. He entered the zone solo, locked horns with Dalton Prout, suckered Bob out of the net far enough to give John Carlson a clear path once he made a nigh-impossible pass.

• Mikhail Grabovski got an assist and a goal , putting him at 17 points on the season. He has more points in 19 games than he had in 48 last season. We all knew it would happen, but GMGM put his money (okay, Ted’s money) where our mouth was. Props.
• The second line (Laich-Johansson-Brouwer) got creamed in zone time. Seems to me those are good hockey players who add nothing to each other’s game. Considering the team’s performance in the last three, I can’t see how they stay together after this one.
• Our Twitter account got bombarded after the Cam Atkinson goal. The tweeple seem to think Mike Green was at fault there. The tweeple are correct, but that was a tough play– bouncing puck and a forechecker with a lot of speed.
• Steve Oleksy and Alex Urbom cannot be paired together. 4 out of every 5 shots they saw went towards the Caps net. UPDATE: It was only 3 out of 4– or 2 out of 3. Still awful. Less atrociously awful.
• OVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII. It’s gotta be the hair. I love the Ovi shots from the Ovi spot– don’t get me wrong– but it doesn’t get any better than greasy goals from the greasy crease. Crash the net. Ovechkin had 6 shots on the game. Attaboy.

Joe B suit of the night: Return to Form

Okay, that ended well. Alex Ovechkin is the beat. Convince me otherwise.

But it’s really not a good thing for the Caps to struggle so much about against a team like Lumbus. Three years ago the idea of getting outplayed by the Blue Jackets would be absurd. Now it’s reality. Marinate on that for a second.

And so ends the easy part of the season. Red Wings, Blues, Penguins: that’s the next 7 days. In the mortal words of Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park: Hold on to your butts.

The Captain sports a new 'doo. Ovech-skinned. http://t.co/W2f9YVEca4

— Wes Johnson (@WesJohnsonVoice) November 12, 2013