The GOAT (Photo: Patrick McDermott)

The Washington Capitals should have beat the Calgary Flames. They played well for the most part, but the Calgary Flames got the better bounces. So the slump continues, but at least the Caps got a standings point this time.

Calgary got on the board first when Lance Bouma stole a rebound that Mike Green didn’t see. The Caps struck back soon after as Nick Backstrom chopped Alex Ovechkin’s long bomb.

Mark Giordano got the best of some meh Capitals defense to give the Flames the lead in the second, but the Caps had a quick response thanks to a weird bounce in Marcus Johansson’s favor. The Capitals entered the second intermission with a one-goal lead thanks to a greasy 5v3 goal by Joel Ward.

The Flames got a freak goal of their own off Marcus Johanssons’ stick and Troy Brouwer’s skate with about five minutes left because hockey is cruel and hates your stupid narrative. Tom Wilson almost had a buzzer beater, but Hiller denied him.

Dry scrape! Overtime was exciting as hell, with tons of chances for the good guys, but it was the Flames who emerged victorious when Sean Monahan got the best of the defense.

Flames beat Caps 4-3 (OT). Five games without a W.

• Our deepest sympathies go to Dom Pettey of Gonzaga. We’ll be thinking of Dom, his family and friends, in the coming days. I hear he wasn’t a Caps fan, but he was definitely a hockey fan– and a human– and that makes him my brother. Be strong, Gonzaga.
• It was an assist, not a goal, that put Alex Ovechkin in the franchise’s all-time points lead over Peter Bondra. Bondra was a titan in my hockey-watching youth, and writing about Alex Ovechkin is what I’ve done in the last five years instead of meeting people and doing things. They’re both great, but only one is GR8. Check out Ian’s coverage of the Backstrom goal– it’s terrific stuff.
• On the smaller scale, Alex Ovechkin’s shot output seems to have rebounded from last week. He forced Hiller to make 7 saves in regulation. In his final shift of #rego, Ovi looked like a god among houseflies on the ice.
• What do you make of Tom Wilson on the top line? The results were there. I particularly liked when Wilson took Giordano off the ice for two minutes so Ovi and Backstrom could stretch their legs for 4v4. I kinda like top-line Wilson overall, but the jury is still out.
• Meanwhile, I certainly do not like the Mike Green–Brooks Orpik pairing. Green was unawares (and without Orpik) for the Bouma goal and insufficient for the OT winner, but it was the duo’s defense on Giordano’s carving of the Caps D that was truly unacceptable. No wonder Todd Reirden seemed to have lost his voice; I’d be shouting too. Real rough night for Green.

[scoots over, pats seat] Tons of room on the Nate Schmidt bandwagon for you guys.

— RMNB (@russianmachine) November 5, 2014

• Whatever happened to Andre Burakovsky? The third line is not treating him well– or he’s not deserving of anything higher. He was underwater in possession tonight, though he had one stirring shift in OT.
• I don’t want to talk about this Liam O’Brien thing. I just wanna take a shower and go to church.
• The bottom line overall, however, was rave-worthy. They got shift almost entirely in their own zone and kept the Flames from the puck overwhelmingly. That’s a great turnaround for Jay Beagle, who struggled on Sunday.
• I wrote a post to stick it to aggrieved Washington football fans, but no one took the bait— in comments at least. Twitter and Facebook have been fun.
• How weird was Marcus Johansson‘s fluke goal? How weird was Grandlund’s that went off Mojo’s stick? Johansson missed the net, but the puck bounced into the back of Hiller’s skates and into its cozy, netted home. I interpret this event in two ways: a) goals are unpredictable, random events. With Lady Luck (nee Lady PDO) going against the Caps for the last week, it’s good to see her change her mind– even if it was just temporary. b) Marcus Johansson moar shoot-y is Marcus Johansson moar good-y.

Joe B suit of the night

This changes nothing.

Try and tell me Braden Holtby was at fault for anything in that game. Do it.

We need to liberate ourselves from the stodgy idea that players have absolute– or even significant– control over which pucks go in and which don’t. All players can do is try to tweak the percentages by a point here or there with smart play and desperately hope that randomness doesn’t make them look like suckers in the short term.

The Capitals look like suckers in the short term. This has been a lesson for us all.

So the Caps played well again, and the mistakes were fewer and farther between, but it still wasn’t enough. Mike Green in particular is probably gonna have a rough couple days following this one.

Hurricanes on Saturday night. Maybe Semin will play or maybe he’ll be a scratch. Either way, let’s agree to meet here then and watch together. LYLAF Caps fans. Caps Hawks Friday too brah.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Flames