Happy Beagle GIF by @myregularface
A full sixty minutes of good hockey still eludes the Washington Capitals. Saturday’s bout with the Carolina Hurricanes almost shaped up that way, but the Caps let the Canes shamble away after the second intermission. And just like Tyreese on the Walking Dead with that creepy guy in the baseball cap, the Caps would regret not killing the bastards when they had the chance.
But they still squeaked out the W, and that’s what matters. Two in a row!
Eric Fehr drew a penalty in the first period, resulting in a hardworking power-play goal by Troy Brouwer set up by Marcus Johansson’s drive to the net. Jay Beagle made it 2-0 by scoring from an angle where it’s supposed to be impossible to score. The Canes got on the board late in the period with a nice goal by Riley Nash.
Eric Fehr scored a thrilling goal late in the second period, converting a turnover he forced, and then reaching wide to beat Anton Khudobin.
The Canes closed the gap int the third period. Jeff Skinner ripped off Eric Fehr in the D zone and set up Eric Staal for a one-timer, and then Justin Faulk got a shot off the faceoff through a bunch of traffic to tie it (Update: Lindholm tipped it, which explains why Peters couldn’t stop it).
With just seconds left in overtime, Nick Backstrom put Alex Ovechkin’s rebound in the back of the net like a flappy salmon.
Caps beat Canes 4-3 in overtime!
beagle.jpg!
All of those Caps goals in the first two periods required the intervention of a Hurricanes player to deflect. Bounces, bounces, bounces.
Joe B suit of the night: brown!
I like a ton of what the Caps are doing, but they’re leaving a lot of cash on the table so to speak. Let’s start with this: the Capitals are downright cowardly when they have the lead. They drop from a top-5 possession team to a truly mediocre bubble team. The killer instinct is missing, and that is the fault of head coach Barry Trotz. Instead of putting five or six goals on the Canes, getting everyone some free wings and cheap pizza, and unlocking Enrique, Trotz had his Caps lay back, allowing the Canes to claw back into this one.
The Capitals need to scoar moar goals. Like Galactus, they need a constant hunger for planets, except goals instead of planets and no Silver Surfer. The Caps need to be more like the Tampa Bay Lightning, who scored seven tonight. Moar. Moar. Moar. Then we won’t be in a silly situation like this, where the Captain and Backstrom have to bail them out in 4v4 overtime.
But by all means, please tell me which goals Justin Peters “had to have” and which ones “he’s gonna want back.”
Oh well, two points is two points. Woot!
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Canes
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