Hockey hugs.
The New York Islanders were apparently unhappy with their performance on Friday, so they opted to pound the hell out of the Capitals on Sunday. Without Braden Holtby standing on his head, this would have been a blow out. It was a constant onslaught with immense tension. It was the Ardennes forest of hockey games.
Despite a ton of Isles chances, we were scoreless until halfway through the game, when Kyle Okposo deflected a shot by Lubomir Visnovsky to finally crack Holtby. With six minutes left in the third, the Capitals finally beat Halak with Nick Backstrom’s heavily trafficked shot– off the crossbar and in. That was where we stood at the end of rego.
John Tavares won it immediately in overtime.
Isles beat Caps 2-1. I’m crestfallen.
^ I am the raccoon right now.
- Eric Fehr suffered an apparent shoulder injury in the first period courtesy of Kyle Okposo. It was a clean hit, but also a devastating one– sending one of the Caps’ best player in all three zones out of the game. I’m an emotional basket case. The Caps played the rest of the game with eleven forwards. It would have been even worse had Marcus Johansson not escaped injury off this Cal Clutterbuck hit.
- Also on the injury front: Troy Brouwer creamed Lubomir Visnovsky. Lubo laid on the ice until the whistle blew, visibly shaken up. He’s had a history of concussions, and I assume he spent some time in the quiet room, but Visnovsky returned to the game in time to absorb a huge hit from Alex Ovechkin before he set up Kyle Okposo for the goal. Great story as long as you consider the player involved to be either invincible or disposable.
- This photo approximates the existential terror I felt today:
Scary pic.twitter.com/H4B8A3Ugyb
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) April 19, 2015
- The Capitals got lit up like the fourth of July. Instead of keeping the Isles to 21 shots like on Friday, the Isles got 16 alone in the first period alone. Infinite thanks go to healthy Braden Holtby, who had to step quickly to halt the runs New York kept dumping on him.
- My take on why the Isles got some much action: the Capitals’ passing was hot mayo garbage. Breakouts were dysfunctional, so the Isles swarmed on forecheck, then the desperate stretch passes started early– and none of them worked particularly well. All the interesting stuff in hockey happens in the offensive and defensive zones, but many games are lost in neutral.
- Star of game two, Jason Chimera, got smoked, as did Brooks Orpik and John Carlson. Soft hands were rewarded.
- They’re both handsome and overpaid, but Brooks Orpik and Brooks Laich are in fact two different people. CC: NBC.
- Playoff superstar: Nick Backstrom. Monster goal. After a cooling period at the end of the regular season, you can’t say the Caps’ best players don’t show up in the postseason.
- Alex Ovechkin is still generating shots, but the Isles are throwing their bodies in front of his pucks with abandon. Johnny Boychuk in particular played spectacular defense on the Great Eight, perhaps singlehandedly stopping the Caps power play at times.
No.
Holtby was great, Backstrom too, but overvalued forward depth and tactless defense is sinking this team. Down a game with one more at Nassau, the Caps need to clean up their act for Tuesday.
Stay strong, Caps fans.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game Three
