Photo credit: Patrick McDermott
With both Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom out of the lineup for the first time in years and a mighty Sharks team crashing Verizon Center, it looked like the Caps might have a tough Tuesday. They did.
Just like Saturday, the first period did not go well for the Capitals, with the Sharks peppering Braden Holtby with shot after shot. The Caps got a few odd-man rushes, but nothing else. Joe Thornton converted on San Jose’s zone time with a tip in front of Holtby, putting the Sharks up 1-0 after one. The Caps were lucky it wasn’t worse.
But soon it was. Just two minutes and 36 seconds into the second, Mike Brown (no relation to Katie) popped in a rebound after Chris Tierney skated past a collection of Caps and crashed Braden’s crease. Less than five minutes later, Tomas Hertl made it 3-0 on another rebound put-back, set up by some nice forechecking.
Later in the period, we finally got some good news. Dmitry Orlov scored his first goal since March of last year. Alas, they’ve got this new-fangled coach’s challenge thing in the NHL now and Sharks coach Peter DeBoer used it. And then referee Tim Peel misused it. No goal. Nothing in the third, save for two empty netters. Pretty dumb game. Sharks blank Caps 5-0.
- First of all, we love you, Alex Ovechkin. The Caps captain missed the game for “personal reasons,” according to the team. We won’t speculate, but we’re hoping it’s not too serious.
- Without Ovechkin, the Caps had a whole bunch of new lines, with Stan Galiev getting in the lineup after sitting out Saturday. Forget about them. Other than the new second line of Marcus Johansson, Brooks Laich, and Justin Williams, everyone was underwater. Hopefully Ovi (and Nick) will be back soon.
- I’m gonna do some Sharks bullets because they were the only team playing. Crazy man Brent Burns had himself a good night with an assist on the Thornton tally, a great play to breakup a Capitals three-on-one, monster possession numbers, and nearly 24 minutes on the ice. And hey, he took three penalties too.
- Sharks goalie Martin Jones is on a brilliant run. Since allowing a goal on his first shot of the season, nothing has gotten by the San Jose netminder. It’s a streak of almost three games. Those are Braden Holtby numbers.
- Joel Ward, who signed a three-year deal with the San Jose in the offseason, was back at VC with his big stinky cheese, or whatever it is. I never really got that nickname. Anyway, Wardo got a great tribute on the jumbotron which drew a standing ovation from those assembled at Verizon Center. Ward was also honored by fans who brought awesome signs, including our own Rachel Cohen. Rachel got a point from Wardo and airtime on CSN. Superstar.
Nice posters, @kat326! pic.twitter.com/ikE0EnHsnZ
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 13, 2015
- The Capitals started off slow Saturday. I thought it was just because they had six days before playing any hockey, but they did it again tonight. This one was like real, real bad. The Sharks had 36 shot attempts in the frame. The Capitals had 13. It got better over time, but there still wasn’t much going on. Whatever.
The Democratic debate was tonight, so I’m gonna use that to go on a semi-coherent tangent. With Ovechkin and Backstrom out of the lineup, this game could have gone a few ways. The Caps could have come out like Hillary Clinton: battered, but still tough to beat. Or they could have been like Bernie Sanders: getting small contributions from the worker bees, perhaps enough to take down a juggernaut. Or they could have been like Jim Webb and put up a lackluster and irrelevant performance. Instead, they were Lincoln Chafee. You should completely forget about this one, but not before you switch to the metric system.
The Caps and the Blackhawks are coming to you from Verizon Center Thursday night.
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