Nothing is forbidden anymore. The Washington Capitals can seemingly surrender a two-spot to any team in the league just so they can have fun with the comeback effort. That’s precisely what we got in the home den of the New York Rangers on Sunday: a disheartening start, a soaring comeback, and lots and lots of fun hockey.
Taylor Chorney was the setup man in a lovely sequence finished off by Justin Williams for the game’s opening goal. Then it was all Rangers. JT Miller tied the game with a solo drive and a tricky release, then Chris Kreider got the lead by converting a broken play, then Dan Boyle converted a power play before the first period was up.
In the second period, the Caps clawed their way back in with a Russian team-up, Dmitry Orlov to Evgeny Kuznetsov, to make it 3-2, and then TJ Oshie crashed the net to tie the game again. An Ovi Shot from the Ovi Spot gave the Caps the lead, which Justin Williams doubled with a power-play gutshot from the slot late int he period.
Jason Chimera scored a shorthanded goal on relief goalie Magnus Hellberg. No, seriously. Evgeny Kuznetsov forechecked superbly to set up Marcus Johansson for the game’s seventh goal. SEVENTH. GOAL.
Caps beat Rangers 7-3! Hahahahaha))))
Obviously, this is a Bailamos game. OBVIOUSLY. Let’s dance. Take it away, Enrique.
- Paul McCartney was at the game. I’m more of a George Harrison guy. Actually, I’m more an Enrique guy.
- This was a nasty game, and Alex Ovechkin set the tone early with this hit on Ryan McDonagh.
Ovi's big hit behind the net pic.twitter.com/fhvNtGFJTc
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) December 21, 2015
- It continued. Tom Wilson and Tanner Glass did exactly what you’d expect them to do. Glass later harassed Braden Holtby and then got jumped by a billion Caps. Justin Williams got bopped in the kisser. Rough stuff between rivals.
- Alex Ovechkin scored on an Ovi Shot from the Ovi Spot, in case you weren’t sure that was still a thing. Yes, it is.
- Your boy, RMNB’s own Pat Holden, was at MSG in a suite like a bawsss.
This is @DianeBix, she got us the suite for the game tonight pic.twitter.com/0L0y0HUhw7
— Pat Holden (@pfholden) December 21, 2015
- As such, Holden was witness to TJ Oshie‘s 13th goal of the season, a lovely drive to the net made possible by Nick Backstrom‘s otherworldly passing. Below is Oshie’s progress on the 30-goal project, oh hell yes.
- But Oshie missed much of the second period after scoring that goal. Looking at the replay, it looks like defenseman Dylan McIlrath dumped Oshie over his knee. Oshie’s absence put a hole in the power-play unit, one capably filled by Justin Williams, who scored a set play on the PP that looked downright surgical. Oshie returned in the third.
- That four-goal second period forced Henrik Lundqvist from the net, to be replaced by heavy-metal sex-god motorcycle-club gangster guitar-wizard swords’n’sorcery-author Magnus Hellberg, who promptly gave up a shorty to Jason Chimera. We could make fun of Henrik for getting pulled, but our guy did the same thing just two nights earlier. It just wasn’t Hank’s night, and that’s that.
- The top and bottom forward lines struggled with their assignments, but the middle six– especially Jay Beagle — were possession monsters. Very often I find the third line to be Washington’s worst. Not so much tonight. Even Tom Wilson was at risk of hurting his team with bad penalties, but then he started drawing them again to stay in the black in his penalty differential. And Chimera got that aforementioned shorthanded goal, the ninth of his carer. Great night for the depth guys.
Joe B suit of the night
Great night for everybody, really. The Caps scored seven goals! That’s a feat they haven’t done — jeez– only a month? (Wow.)
If I can be honest for a second, I was envious that I didn’t get to cover that thrilling comeback win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night. For that reason, I’m extra grateful to the Washington Capitals for not merely repeating the feat, but doing it even bigger as if it were a rare non-disappointing Hollywood sequel.
Let’s marinate on this for a second. We can’t let this go to waste. We’ve seen this team struggle and soar and struggle and soar and rinse and repeat. And we’ve seen them try some defense-first bullpucky that was boring and bad, a period of time when it was brutal to watch the team. But now they’re scoring five-plus goals with regularity. Enrique is showing up a lot. I guess all I mean by that is that I recognize how good this team is, and I appreciate it, and I’m enjoying it, and I’m ready for whatever’s next.
Whatever’s next is a game tomorrow night. See you then.
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