Can we all agree that we like the beard? (Photo: Patrick McDermott)

The Caps’ last game before the All-Star Break began crackling with excitement, but quickly settled into the quiet urgency of a bunch of guys eager to get home for a long weekend. They couldn’t even manage to do that well, as the Caps squandered an early, healthy lead and lost in the gimmick.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the first period, first with a slapper on a delayed penalty and then again with an Ovi shot from the Ovi spot. Edmonton’s own number eight, Derek Roy, returned fire by beating Matt Niskanen to the niskanet. Before we hit intermission, Jay Beagle scored and there was much rejoicing.

Nikita Nikitin put the Oilers within one goal late in the second period while Niskanen was in the box.

In the third, Nick Backstrom tipped in John Carlson’s long bomb to put Edmonton back in the two-goal hole where they belong, though I guess maybe we forgot to tell them that. Teddy Purcell got a quick little snapper to Holtby’s far side to make 4-3 in the final five minutes, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied it in the final 100 seconds, forcing overtime. Overtime didn’t do nuffin, so you know what’s next.

Shootout bullets!

• Kuznetsov put the biscuit in the basket.
• Yakupov did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
• Backstrom did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
• Eberle did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
• Ovechkin did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
• Roy put the biscuit in the basket.
• Fehr did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
• Purcell put the biscuit in the basket, of course he did.

Oilers beat Caps 5-4 in the shootout. That was dumb as hell.

• Weird game alert! Weird game alert!
• Alex Ovechkin has 11 goals in 11 games and 3 even-strength goals in his last 3 games. He is a machine. Ovi should have had the hat trick, but it seems to me like he didn’t really try for it. After his second, he passed during 5v5 and didn’t pull the trigger during the power play. Weird. Is he worried about being labeled a glory hound? ‘Cause, c’mon. We all want this for him, right?
• Plus: DC Hat Trick denied (i.e. two goals in rego, one in the shootout). Damn.
• Matt Niskanen hasn’t had a good week. He blew the Nashville game on Friday and tonight was the escape goat. Niskanen lost a battle to Derek Roy to surrender the first goal, then he got busted for consecutive penalties in the game’s back half (his partner Karl Alzner got whistled for holding after that). Niskanen was one of the few Caps players to spend most of his time in the defensive zone. In short: he was bad. Let’s hope he puts this behind him soon, lest he must join Nisk-anon.
• Even I don’t get that joke.
• I said this and then Backstrom scored.

State of our union would be a little stronger if the Caps could get another goal or two off these Canadian scrubs.

— RMNB (@russianmachine) January 21, 2015

• How ’bout the penalty parade. Some of those calls– especially Jay Beagle‘s trip– were horsenonsense. The Caps gave the Oilers five straight power plays, though I gotta think the refs gave the Oilers the last one. Some of that is bad play too much in their own end, some of that is bad discipline, and some of it is what my friend Ed Frankovic would call “bad zebras.” The Washington PK was good and the Edmonton PP was atrocious. I’m worried that the Caps will think the blown lead was due only to momentary lapses in judgment and not also due to them abandoning the concept of scoring once they got the lead.
• Brooks Orpik praise warning: I thought Brooks Orpik was good. He even had a little offense (not on target, but ya know, it’s the thought that counts).
• Be honest, DC. How many of you were doing this tonight?

• The Capitals don’t have a killer instinct when they have the lead. They win too many games by one goal, which is a sign of weakness. I wrote about this at length this morning, but you saw it on display at Verizon Center. The Caps blew a two-goal lead twice tonight. This was an easily winnable game, and they screwed it up.
• I love Matt Hendricks, but the offense and defense parts of hockey don’t seem to be part of his core skill set. Last time I checked he was getting outshot 15 to 3 in his overwhelmingly defensive deployments. (Why is he being used so much in the D zone?) I’m glad beyond words that Hendy is getting paid now, and I’m maybe even gladder that he’s getting paid by a different team.

Joe B suit of the night.

The Caps should’ve won this one 6-1. It is totally unacceptable for them to have lost. It is totes unaccept.

One-goal games are to good hockey teams what particle board is to good furniture.

But the state of our hockey team is strong. Alex Ovechkin is a force of nature and Braden Holtby is as reliable as a sturdy, American-built automobile.

But they could be so much stronger. Where’s the desire to get a three-goal lead? How about they just hold a lead for once? And where’s the restraint to commit penalties? Where’s Nick Backstrom’s 400th assist? Where’s Ovi’s opposite winger? When everyone gets back next week, I wanna see that stuff and a whole lot more.

Go Caps.

p.s. I’m totally not recapping the nonsense of the ASG. It’s break time for me too.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Oilers