Tommy Drama.
It took a while to get going, but the Capitals played a good road game against a good opponent to earn two huge points on Thursday night. It was game that, like so many others, serves to remind us how valuable Alex Ovechin is to this team. You might even say he’s the Most Valuable.
We waited with baited breath until past the halfway mark, when Zach Parise roughed up Tom Wilson and Wilson got a B.S. embellishment call. Alex Ovechkin responded with his 46th of the season, followed by Evgeny Kuznetsov’s snatch-and-score just 40 seconds later. Christian Folin extracted revenge right before the second intermission with a rush goal.
Ovechkin scored number 47 in the third period, which was amazing, and Jared Spurgeon hit a stand-up double on a late-game power play. Braden Holtby fended off a wild (get it?) attack in the final minute to win the game.
Caps beat Wild 3-2! The first time ever in Xcel!
“@mlse: I don't believe that smart people make these mistakes https://t.co/kAoTnuOybB” I will use 10 of these in my game recap tonight.
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) March 19, 2015
- The Caps are the best power-play team in the league, but the Wild are the best at the PK. So that was a wash, with the Caps unable to convert on any man advantage, but the team made due with 4v4 action and that gorgeous faceoff win by Nick Backstrom.
- Drama king Tom Wilson was at it again. Wherever there’s on-ice conflict, Wilson is either at the middle of it or he’s about to inject himself into the middle of it. His deep-seeded passion for stirring up trouble earned him two penalties– the latter of which, an embellishment call, was utter nonsense.
- The second line of Curtis Glencross, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Troy Brouwer got swamped. We were deep into the second period before that line wetted their appetite with a 5v5 shot attempt. No Gold Rush tonight. Seems to me like none of those players can lug the mail sufficiently.
- Despite his awful 5v5 line, Evgeny Kuznetsov is on a streak. His goal came while both teams were a man down, which opened up the ice, though I doubt extra space was as much of a factor in the goal as was Jonas Brodin’s unwise slight of hand with the puck in front of Devan Dubnyk’s net. Kuzy stole it and scored. Guy’s pretty good in the offensive zone… maybe he should be on a more offensive 5v5 line?
- Alex Ovechkin scored his 46th and 47th goals of the season– both in inspiring fashion. For the first, Ovi carried the puck into the zone, fired a shot, grabbed his own rebound, and scored. For the second, Ovi shot in the blink of an eye after Nick Backstrom won an OZ faceoff. Ovi is a shoe-in for the Hart Trophy. For all intensive purposes, he’s on his way to another 50-goal season. Still no hat tricks though. Weird.
- Stinky D by Brooks Laich on the Folin goal. The Wild were on the rush, playing 3-on-3 (with Alzner behind the play). Laich played like I would have: wandering towards the puck in ignorance of everything else going on. I don’t play hockey, and, on that play, by in large, neither did Brooks. He should of done his do diligence and marked the right man. (Laich was really good the rest of the game; I’m just picking on him.)
- That goal came right as the Caps honed in on a two-goal lead heading into the second intermission. Instead, the goal was cut and half, and we were dealing with a one-goal game for most of the duration. In the end the Caps won, so I could care less.
- In front of a hometown crowd, Nate Schmidt was perfectly cromulent. His steal and semi-breakaway in the third period peaked my interest, but Dubnyk saw it coming. Good goalie, that one.
- But Holtby is better. He was superhuman in that final minute of 6v5 chaos, during which the Wildlings were raucous.
Joe B suit of the night is so disappointing. I am bored.
Good win on the road, and even gooder for the standings. Let’s talk about something else– now without deliberately bad writing.
I’m having a hard time collecting my thoughts about Matthew Wuest, aka Cap Geek, who died earlier today from colon cancer, which he had lived with for two and a half years. Cap Geek was a tremendously popular, valuable, and well-executed resource for thousands of people in our community. For fans, bloggers, journalists, and general managers, it was simply the go-to site.
But that’s just popularity. Cap Geek was also astonishingly accurate and well done. It was a nexus of nerdish craftsmanship, hardcore hockey fandom, and a singular selflessness. Wuest had the information and the skill– and he gave it away. He shared it. That’s a sign of a noble heart.
I wonder– I hope— that Matthew knew how appreciated he was. I wonder if there are any people in my life like Matthew: people who share their gifts because that’s just what you do. I think I’m gonna track down a few of those people this weekend and let them know how appreciated they are. Because life is fickle and fleeting, and evil is pernicious and spreading, and it’s never too early to say thank you, but sometimes it’s too late.
Thank you for reading.
