This is what the Caps’ other goalie looks like. In case you forgot. (Photo: Patrick McDermott)
I don’t know what I was expecting from Thursday’s Caps-Blue Jackets game, but it wasn’t this. I didn’t expect the glut of special teams and an explosive start for the home team. The pair of goalie interference calls were the Spanish Inquisition of penalties. And while I guess I saw the Caps’ offensive doldrum coming, I didn’t expect that depressing finish. This was a weird one– and it was not particularly pretty.
A little over three minutes in, John Carlson released a point shot at the tail end of a 5v3. Eric Fehr tipped that in, though we think Alex Ovechkin might have had a piece of it. The Caps dominated much of the period, but Nick Foligno tied it up with a giftwrapped goal in the fifteenth minute. The second period went scoreless despite a four-minute power play for the Caps.
Troy Brouwer masterfully tipped in a wide cannon from Matt Niskanen midway through the third to put the Caps up, but Kevin Connauton got a weird shot from outside past Braden Holtby’s left flank to tie it just 99 seconds later. That’s how it looked at the end of rego.
Jason Chimera got sent to the Sasha box in overtime, where Nick Foligno ended it with a snazzy shot.
Lumbus beats Caps 3-2 in overtime.
- Mike Green looked splendid in his first game back from injury. Barry Trotz gave Green the light assignments he said he would (17:58 TOI), but Green led the Caps to a positive shot-attempt differential and wasn’t on ice for any really lame defensive efforts that gave Nick Foligno a criminally easy goal in the first period– not to call anyone out.
- Holy special teams. Hockeystats.ca has a cool feature that builds a timeline of the shot attempts for each team. Usually the “all situations” filter and the “5v5 only” filter are pretty similar. Not so much tonight. The Caps feasted on power plays– a 5v3 in the first period and back-to-back minors in the second. Tom Wilson was in the thick of it pretty much the whole time, resulting in the Caps running up the score, if only the “score” were the shot attempt tally.
- The dude behind the big shot totals will not surprise you. Alex Ovechkin hardly left the ice in the game’s first five minutes and had put nine shots on net. That is Ovi’s highest total of the season and more than doubled everyone else on the ice except Niskanen.
- The Caps converted one of those zillion power plays, but I suppose that is not enough. A 4-minute power play with 7 shots went scoreless in the second period, and the Caps’ somewhat odd 5v3 formulation didn’t do the trick in the first period. Sound and fury.
- I generally think Holtby’s “I like to see more shots” routine is nonsense, though games like this one– with long lulls in front of the Caps net and a grand total of 23 pucks headed towards Holtby– make me question it.
- Conflicted feelings on this RMNB tweet following Troy Brouwer‘s goal, which was really really good looking.
JUST THE TIP IN
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 12, 2014
- Brouwer’s goal was enabled by Matt Niskanen, who was terrific tonight. Five shots, great possession, shiny apple, though he might have to share with…
- …Proud papa Karl Alzner, who rarely gets a bullet in these recaps since he’s mellow like mid-career Pedro the Lion. It’s been a big 36 hours for Karl. He probably needs a power nap.
- Gretzky seconds between Brouwer’s goal and the goal by Connauton, who I don’t know who that is.
- First Doctor Who William Hartnell > Scott Harnell. They were both cranky old men who got away with stuff they shouldn’t have, but I prefer the Brit. Hartnell got away with a dirty one in the first. Not so much in the third.
- Worst possession player for the Caps: Eric Fehr. Nothing makes sense in this world. It’s cold comfort to me that Jason Chimera went off-sides every other zone entry and committed bad penalties in period two and overtime.
- Good god– how about that play on the PK by Brooks Orpik in overtime? He looked amazing skating up the ice on an odd-man rush with Beagle. Conditioning. Conditioning and no fried food. What a sad life he leads.
- Not exactly a packed house in Verizon Center tonight. The cold weather? Early start? Cromnibus?
Joe B suit of the night
Well, I loved the hot start, but the Caps couldn’t keep it up– nor could they keep up the solid 60-minute effort that led them to success in Tampa. I’m gonna consider this one of those weird games that just doesn’t make any sense. Unlimited penalties, huge swings in momentum, hard-fought goals for one team and a bunch of muffins for the other. I wash my hands of it. One point was enough to ask of this mess.
Tampa comes to town on Saturday night. Let’s party.
