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Festivus Feast: Caps blank Bolts 4-0

By Chris Gordon

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December 23, 2016 10:47 pm

The Capitals billed their December 23 matchup as a holiday party. Man, was it a fun one. John Carlson got on the board 55 seconds into the game only to net another goal 15 minutes later. In the second, Alex Ovechkin put on his fancy pants and scored his 15th goal of the season and the 540th goal of his career. Marcus Johansson continued his great season with another breakaway tally in the third. Great times. Caps blank Bolts, 4-0.

  • John Carlson has struggled for most of this season. The Caps power play, which was in the dumps, was often stymied by errant passes to Alex Ovechkin. Now, however, things are back on track for the $4 million d-man. Carlson has been shooting more from the point, racking up five points in six games coming into Friday’s tilt. After one goal in just 31 games, J-Car had two goals in 15 minutes. During that time, the Lighting had only managed one shot. Carlson’s goals were his first even-strength markers of the season, good for his second career multi-goal game. No. 74 also led the game in shots on goal with six.
  • Another player who got on the scoresheet was Tom Wilson, who had just two points in 32 games. With a glut of forwards, he could have been (and might still be) entering scratch territory.
  • Marcus Johansson, man. The tough swede took an (unwarranted) goalie interference penalty before converting on a breakaway for his 13th goal of the season. He’s on fire.
  • Brett Connolly finally got into the lineup after sitting out about half the season. He’s a bit frustrated, given his one-year contract. He’s actually produced pretty well, with three goals in 18 games. But Caps head coach Barry Trotz has been reluctant to tweak the fourth line and prefers playing the Capitals’ younger players like Jakub Vrana and, sometimes, Zach Sanford.
  • “I need to be playing,” Connolly said this morning. “I need to be out there, so we’ll see. It’s obviously a big year.”
  • Well, Connolly provided a spark to the fourth-line on Friday. They were Washington’s best possession trio, with over 70 percent of shot attempts going the Capitals’ way.
  • Taylor Chorney played. He was fine. Now get Nate Schmidt back in the lineup already.
  • Alex Ovechkin has had a rough season. But he had a sublime goal tonight. He led the Caps in shot attempts.
  • Braden Holtby. Twenty-three saves. Twenty-sixth career shutout. His third blanking of the season. First star of the game. Yawn.
  • The Capitals penalty kill has been fantastic lately. Overall they convert over 84 percent of the time, good for seventh in the league coming into Friday’s game. Those numbers will go up, as Washington killed six PIMs against the Bolts. Ya boy Ben Raby had this nugget after the Capitals’ first kill.

  • In many ways this wasn’t a fair fight. The Tampa Bay Lighting, who were one win away from making it to the Stanley Cup Final last season, were without Ryan Callahan, Vladislav Namestnikov, Cedric Paquette, Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, and Ben Bishop. That’s a truly staggering number of injuries and illness. With Tampa, and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, playing their second game in as many nights, the Bolts looked haggard.
  • “I don’t know if we’ve found our identity so far as a team,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said before the game. They certainly didn’t have one Friday.
  • Now for the silly stuff.

RMNB Fashion Corner

  • The press box was in a festive mood on December 23. The R & R began early. As RMNB’s Chief Fashion Correspondent, let me take you through the night.

https://twitter.com/Chris_Gordon/status/812432254463053825

  • First, I encountered superb Caps radio man John Walton in the bowels (someday, we will come up with a better phrase than that) of Verizon Center. He was sporting a bright gingham number paired with a tie with freaking tigers on it. It was purchased at the San Diego zoo.

  • I then took the elevator six floors up to the press box. As the doors opened, Wes Johnson, who looks suspiciously like Santa, appeared. I did not ask what he’s doing this weekend.

https://twitter.com/Chris_Gordon/status/812436599690657792

The holidays are about family members, friends, and the community gathering together for a few days to think about what is important to us, whether you are religious or not. To us, you are our family. We write for you guys. On behalf of RMNB, I wish you a glorious Festivus, a happy Chanukah, a merry Christmas, and a great none of the above.

Rock on!

Full Coverage of Lightning at Caps

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