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Lightning beat Caps 4-3: Blurghghrhghlgh

By Peter Hassett

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November 1, 2014 9:32 pm

Scott Iskowitz

Photo: Scott Iskowitz

The Washington Capitals are way better than their record shows, but it still ain’t showing up in the standings. A thrilling defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night extends that patterns and tests our patience, but at least it was fun to watch.

Ryan Callahan returned from injury tonight and scored right away with a fancy redirect between his legs. The Caps tied it up when Marcus Johansson scored on a rebound off a hero effort by Alex Ovechkin.

The second period was a back-and-forth affair. Eric Fehr scored after a blistering attack (told ya so), but the Bolts tied it up with a pretty passing play punctuated by Palat. It looked like the Bolts would have the lead going into the third, but Brouwer scored off a perfect tee-up by Johansson during a late-period power play.

Jason Garrison scored off a faceoff early in the third, the deflection going off Nick Backstrom’s skates. The Caps couldn’t get it one.

Lightning beat Caps 4-3.

  • From the pregamer: “Third line scores tonight. Take it to #thebank.” Eric Fehr looked predictably awesome (I’m still baffled why he was scratched; Trotz’s explanation didn’t help). His goal was stellar– taking a strong shot then stealing his own rebound and scoring a fadeaway from no angle. He almost got another a few seconds later. Fehr is the best– even if he’s not on the top line. I think it’d be a crummy interpretation to say he did well tonight because he was scratched on Wednesday. The more accurate reading might be that he would have done well on Wednesday too.
  • There were basically no fixed lines through the game’s first 40. A spat of penalties explained that in the first period; not sure what was going on in the second period. It led to a lot of chaos, for example:
  • Evgeny Kuznetsov, who saw 75 percent of the shot attempts go in his favor during 5v5 through two periods, was on the ice for two Bolts goals in that time. Alex Ovechkin, master of plus-minus, was with him for both.
  • Ovi shook off his slump with an assist on that Marcus Johansson goal. I think that was the first 5v5 goal by Johansson that Ovi was on-ice for in 555 days. Mojo’s slump was a lot more compelling to me than Ovi’s. Both players are doing just fine (Ovi’s backcheck in the third was super). Ignore the loudmouths.

(He ain’t wrong.)

  • Tom Wilson fought.
  • Brooks Orpik hit a guy. He’s gonna get fined for flipping the bird, right?
  • This is the beer I got in Amsterdam this week. Probably should have taken Troy Brouwer to the bank. The beer was about as good as Marcus Johansson’s setup.

  • In hindsight, #Chimeracoon wasn’t the best hashtag.
  • As you see below, CSN (Plus) discussed Corsi before the game. I don’t think it was a great conversation, and if you’re not familiar with shot-attempt differential as a measurement of puck possession it probably helped you not at all. There was no effort to help the audience intuit what the stat means or exactly what it measures. Showing the team’s record when the team “wins” Corsi is inherently misleading since teams shoot score less when protecting a lead (explaining the Boston game). I’m glad the big guys are embracing the smartening up of hockey, but this isn’t how to communicate it. Tirade over.

  • Alex Ovechkin had two shots on goal until the final 10 minutes. After a stirring comeback effort, he finished the game with six. Selfish bastard cares only about individual success. You freaking hacks. (Not you guys; you guys are cool.)
joeb

Joe B suit of the night

The Caps are clearly experimenting, trying to find what works and what doesn’t. They seem to have found a lot of the latter so far. I’ll just keep saying this until it becomes obvious: the Caps are really really good. Give it time. They’ll get the kinks out, and then it’ll be party now.

Have a great Saturday night. Let’s do it again tomorrow night, but maybe do it a little better.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Lightning

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