Photo: Rob Carr
Gone are the days of the Sabres and Leafs. The Washington Capitals hosted the actually good San Jose Sharks on Tuesday to a fast-moving, low-scoring affair. The Caps came out of the gates strong, but the Sharks pushed back. We were treated to a tightly played, evenly matched game played mostly at five-on-five. Lucky us. It went to the shootout again. Less lucky us.
The Capitals owned the game’s first ten minutes, but the Sharks stole control back after that and Tyler Kennedy scored. Alex Ovechkin tied it up in the second with a zero-angle one-timer. The Sharks thought they got the lead back before the second intermission, but the buzzer went off a fraction of a second earlier. The third period was a back-and-forth affair but neither team was able to deposit the disc in the drapery. OT couldn’t make up its mind either, so…
Shootout recap!
Sharks beat Caps 2-1 (Shootout)
Joe B suit of the night
Back in the day, we used to complain about the Caps having slow starts. The home team came out shooting in this one, but like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before them, they couldn’t sustain that hot start. The Sharks eventually asserted their puck-possession dominance (they’re second best in the league), holding the Caps shotless for ten minutes in the first period. From then on, it was pretty much neck-and-neck, which is actually pretty encouraging. Also encouraging: another 30+ shot affair for a team that used to treat the puck a bit too preciously.
Going in blind, I’d expected the Caps to lose the Sharks in regulation, so I’m pretty darn happy with taking even just a single standings point from this one. Add to that Alex Ovechkin’s great goal, and it was a good night for the Caps.
A shootout loss shouldn’t demoralize us. The Caps looked pretty good tonight.
But now they hit the road. Wednesday is (ugh) rivalry night on NBCSN. It’s the Pittsburgh Penguins. They’re okay, I guess. If you’re into that sort of thing.
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