For a variety of reasons, I’m envious of all the nice folks who had social plans on this Friday night. Mostly it’s because after I publish this I’m just gonna put on my pajamas and watch Deep Space Nine with my dog, but also because those folks probably didn’t have to watch the Capitals get their butts handed to them (i.e. themselves, the Capitals, no ambiguous antcedent here) by the Dallas Stars.
This was a bad game, and I’m not even gonna recap it, not really, but I will put in some cute dog GIFs.
Shawn Horcuff struck first, getting a weird bounce to get a puck past Braden Holtby. No big deal, ’cause Curtis Glencross got yet another first-period goal a few minutes later. But Colton Sceviour shot through three wickets to put the Stars in the lead, where they remained for the duration.
In the second period, Tyler Seguin got a power-play goal from wiiiiide open and Vernon Fiddler made it a blowout. Kuznetsov got a late goal from wayyyyy out, but it was already over.
Stars beat Caps 4-2.
Reverse Bailamos. Brought to you by the “Large Hall” setting on your karaoke machine’s reverb dial.
- Slow start? Hell yes. The Caps didn’t get their second shot attempt until 9 minutes and 23 seconds into the game (a snapshot by Evgeny Kuznetsov, if you care). I was 45 minutes late to work this morning, so I’ve got no standing to criticize the Caps for not showing up tonight.
- Tom Wilson has abandoned his whole “hockey player” routine. By the third period he was just here to wreck stuff, which he is certainly very good at. But I think Cody Eakin should be off-limits. He’s tiny. Besides, Tom hasn’t exactly been elegant with his hits lately.
- Earlier this afternoon I was sipping a Mountain Dew and consulting my calendar. I saw the Caps’ remaining games (which look pretty tough, bee-tee-dubs) and I decided we might see Justin Peters just one more time: on Monday in Buffalo. But tonight, after Braden Holtby got holtbusted for the fourth time, Trotz gave Peters and unscheduled appearance. He wasn’t bad! He was actually really good! My guess is every minute Peters is on the ice for the rest of the season will improve his save percentage.
- The Capitals were penalty-adled, starting with a too many men call, which I’m mentioning only so I have a weak excuse for this GIF of a dog with too many treats in his mouth.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov earned two points tonight, one on each of the team’s goals. That’s nice. I guess.
- Curtis Glencross, who is somehow immune to the rest of this team’s poopy-diaper shooting percentage, scored again. He scored on his own rebound like a recidivist ex-boyfriend. Hey, let’s go to Roys tomorrow for lunch. You want to go to the one in Frederick or the one in Frederick or the one in Frederick?
Joe B suit of the night
Don’t panic. C’mon. Panic is silly. The Caps haven’t played well this week, but their shooting percentage has been garbage. That means almost nothing in the grand scale of stuff that is grand.
If you want to be concerned that the Capitals may have become a bit too complacent after destroying the Sabres and Leafs and Blue Jackets last week and a run of ridiculous luck in January, yeah, you might be onto something there.
This game was bad, and the Caps were bad in it, but so was last night’s episode of The Slap and the parking situation on my street and that burrito bowl I got from the other Chipotle on Wednesday. There’s always stuff to complain about, and it’s fine to complain as long as we keep our stuff in perspective.
At least Adam Oates is gone.
