Photo credit: Patrick McDermott
The Capitals have had a tepid start to the season, with a lackluster home opener win against a terrible Devils team and a 5-0 massacre loss to the Sharks. To wake up the Capitals, head coach Barry Trotz shuffled the lineup by putting in two guys who shouldn’t be in the lineup. And it worked!
The Capitals dominated possession in the fast first period until Viktor Tikhonov took an interference penalty. That brought out the Capitals power play. There, TJ Oshie, the honorary Harlem Globetrotter and player with a fan club with a tragically oversized dinosaur head, scored his first goal with the Caps!
Early in the second, the Caps added some more when John Carlson, after collecting a pass from Stan Galiev whilst spinning like a dreidel, fired a prayer towards the net. The puck found its way past traffic before being caressed sweetly by the net.
In the third, Matt Niskanen added some insurance with little flip of the wrist from the point that beat Scott Darling. The Blackhawks got one back from Viktor Svedberg, who beat a screened Braden Holtby for his first career NHL goal. Meh. Late in the third, Alex Ovechkin made up for his oopsie on Monday with tip-in goal off pretty tac-toe from Evgeny Kuznetsov. A win! Caps beat Hawks 4-1!
There we go. After an iffy start 1-1, the Capitals are playing the hockey we knew they were capable off. The Blackhawks outplayed the Caps towards the end, but it was still a nice game for the boys in red. The Caps are a very good hockey team that can beat other very good hockey teams. They’ll be even better when golden assist god Nicklas Backstrom returns to the lineup in the coming days.
Caps vs. Canes, the last game of Washington’s opening homestand, will be coming at you Saturday night. I’ll be with you from Verizon Center. Enjoy your Friday.
And oh yeah, one last thing!
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