Righteous photo (Photo: Doug Pensinger)
The Washington Capitals are bad with the lead. They demonstrated as much on Thursday night when their conservative play caused two blown one-goal leads. The Colorado Avalanche, who are really bad, genuinely outplayed the Capitals as soon as the Caps took the lead– a continuation of a pattern we’ve seen since week two of the season.
But when the Caps are scrappin’, they’re one of the best in the league. Blowing two leads just made Alex Ovechkin more dangerous on Thursday night. Here’s how it went down.
Ovechkin made some nasty moves in the second period to find Nick Backstrom, which was a weird reversal of roles for the Caps’ first goal. The Avs tied it up promptly after as Nate MacKinnon beat Nate Schmidt and Evgeny Kuznetsov failed to mark the trailing Danny Briere– freaking Danny Briere— who tied it up. No worries though, as Jason Chimera restored the Washington lead with a dart to the top corner.
The Caps played bad hockey in the third period until Tyson Barrie beat a fumbling Capitals defense to tie it. That woke the Caps up. Alex Ovechkin went Rambo style into the Colorado zone, scoring solo on his own rebound during 4-on-4 hockey. The Caps withstood a late attack and took the win in rego.
Caps beat Avs 3-2!
- I’m gonna keep doubting Jason Chimera and Jay Beagle. It’s working out well for the team so far. After getting flummoxed in the first period with a couple failed swipes, Chimera finally found the back of the net in the second. It was a real clean, non-dump-in entry that led to the goal for Beags and twins– a tactic I’d like to see them use a lot more often.
- Mike Green and Troy Brouwer had a scary white-on-white collision, but they’re both okay. This is mostly noteworthy for Ian using his only allotted S-bomb for the season. It’s all clean language from him now.
- Of course, this is the same game I dropped my own S-bomb on RMNB twitter. But I was really excited by the Ovi goal. I couldn’t help it.
- Alex Tanguay left Pepsi Center in an ambulance after taking an Alex Ovechkin slap shot to the face.
- Emerging pattern: the Capitals go into lulls. They did it against the Coyotes and they did it again tonight– at the beginning and end of the second period. That lull led us all the way into Barrie’s tying goal. We should have seen it coming.
- Oh wait
The Caps are gonna lose this lead playing like this.
— RMNB (@rmnb) November 21, 2014
- We did.
- Kind of a trash game from my fave Nate Schmidt, who was instrumental in both Avs goals. This was his first really bad game, I think. He’ll shake it off.
- Hey, the top line scored! That hasn’t happened in a while. Alex Ovechkin got his shot volume back and he got just enough space to have a spectacular night. His GWG was one of the best I’ve seen from him in years. Total hero unit.
- Troy Brouwer was no slouch either. His second line was among the team’s best during 5v5, and Brouwer was taking shots like he was Ian Oland at the bar tomorrow night when I will buy him a bunch of shots for his birthday.
- I’ve been informed that Peter Forsberg is not related Filip. Hunh. Learn something new every day.
- Braden Holtby had another good game. My favorite moment was when he drifted out of the net– a move that has shaken me to my core in the last week– but this time he took away Danny Briere’s angle in the game final two minutes. Nice moves, Holts.
Joe B suit of the night
The Caps are now third in the Metro.
This pattern has been obvious since week three: The Capitals stink with the lead. They play timid, but without caution. They play conservative, but without competence. Instead of doing the stuff that gave them the lead in the first place, they abandon almost all aggression past the blue line– which makes blown leads an inevitability. Braden Holtby’s suspicious save percentage when his team is up isn’t helping. (If Holts has got any gambling debts we need to know about, would someone please float him some cash?)
But once the game is on the line again, the Caps look great: aggressive, hungry for moar goals. That tells me this is a solvable problem. It’s time for Barry Trotz to show us everything he’s learned– and is still learning hopefully– from all those years in the league.
I don’t like to complain too much after a W. Even though I want more aggression, the Caps won. Ovi is great. The team’s fundamentals are pretty strong, and they nabbed two points off a team they deserved to nab two points off. It’s a good night. Happy birthday, Ian.
p.s. – Our fundraiser ends in a few hours. We’ve almost hit $25K, which is nuts. If you still want a shirt, get one quick.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Avalanche
