Photo credit: Al Bello

“That is my principal objection to life, I think: It’s too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes.” – Kurt Vonnegut

For years, the Islanders have made that quote ring true. Confused ownership, terrible hockey and of course Nassau Colosseum. The old place will soon be gone from our TV screens. The smell, the lighting, the architecture, the scoreboard stolen from the local high school. So it goes.

Now, though, the Islanders are moving on. Pretty soon they’ll playing their games in a decedent building in Brooklyn. They’re also now good at hockey. The Caps had trouble with that tonight.

The first period was mostly dominated by the Isles. Anders Lee put them up top after John Carlson failed to cling to his man. Washington then released a small furry of shots before Alex Ovechkin got the Caps back in it with another one of them goals from the circle place when his team has more people on the ice. Travis Hamonic then gave New York the lead again when his high flying wrist shot made it past an effectively blindfolded Braden Holtby.

The second was mostly Isles, but the Caps came on towards the end. The Isles took another unnecessary penalty and Ovi did The Thing. 2-2.

Isles pressed in the third but there was nothing doing.

In the extra, scrapeless frame, Nicky grabbed someone’s stick. John Tavares threw his hands in the air. That’s all. Isles beat Caps 3-2 (OT).

• It’s a holiday, so we’ll keep the bullets light. And yes, I only wrote this one to make the recap look longer.
• Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom were the only forwards to positive corsi numbers this evening. T-Wilz was great, but he started a rather silly scrum that led to Ovi getting sent to the box. He also got involved in an weird fight, but that wasn’t really his fault. Top Line Tom is lovely, but he still needs to break some of those old habits Adam Oates nailed into him.
• Braden Holtby is a good goalie. Some nice stops and he couldn’t do much on any of the goals, though there was a misplay leading up to the first tally.
• Without Mike Green, Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, and John Carlson had to step up and play big minutes. Niskanen was solid but Orpik and particularly Carlson had some bad numbers. They did, however, get put in tough spots. Over 60% of their zone starts were on the defensive end. Get well soon, Greenie.
• Ovi, of course, was a beast, despite being banged up. Two PP snipes and 8 shot attempts, four on net. That led the team, as usual. Ovi kept the Caps in the game, but they need to score five-on-five. They haven’t done it since last Thursday and that goal, as ya boy Adam Vingan points out, was by Ovechkin. A good team cannot rely on one player to score goals in over a four or so minute span. That’s how you lose to Buffalo, that’s how you lose tonight.

Overall, the Caps got outplayed, but survived until OT thanks to their power play. Not exactly shocking stuff and they were lucky to get a point. The refs didn’t lose this game. Nicky’s call was suspect, but there were bigger problems than that. So it goes. Now, we’ve got cousins and in-laws to yell at. Caps will be back at it while you’re all at Walmart fighting over small kitchen appliances. Have a great Thanksgiving, people.

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Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Islanders