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!
- In the season opener on Saturday, the Caps played poorly early against a bad Devils team. On Tuesday, the Sharks attempted 36 shots in the first frame. The Caps had 13. It was different story tonight. It took Chicago almost 10 minutes to get their first shot attempt.
- Last year, Troy Brouwer racked up the goals playing in the slot on the power play. The Capitals’ man advantage was so good they could have really put anyone there and inflated his statistics. Brouwer ended up with 21 tallies on the season, and Washington sold high and traded him for TJ Oshie. Now, Oshie’s got that spot. He used it to perfection Thursday for his first goal in red, white, and blue.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov got an assist on the tally, a nice memento for his 100th NHL game. He added another apple later in the game. Two years ago, we were unsure if Kuzy would ever play in North American. Now he’s anchoring a solid first line along with Oshie and Alex Ovechkin. The trio was the Capitals’ best of the night.
- Speaking of Ovi, he seemed awake for this one (I hate myself). Ovechkin returned to the lineup after his benching with a solid game, throwing an impressive 10 pucks towards the net. And one of them went in!
- Before Viktor Svedberg scored in the third, the Blackhawks had let in seven unanswered goals over their last three games. Not great for the defending champs.
- Chandler Stephenson made his NHL debut tonight. It was pretty good. He had by far the best possession numbers of any bottom-six forward and won five of his six faceoffs.
- Braden Holtby did the Braden Holtby thing. Another solid night. Chicago’s lone goal came while ol’ Bray was completely screened.
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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