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Let the Chorness stabilize you: Lightning beat Caps 4-3 (overtime)

By Peter Hassett

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October 9, 2017 10:23 pm

The Capitals got caved in by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night. Goalie Philipp Grubauer tried to save the Caps from themselves, and he did earn them a regulation-tie point, but this was an obvious loser from the start, despite the score.

Nick Backstrom scored his first goal of the season after some nifty passing from his linemates in the first period. TJ Oshie got his second goal of the season by tipping John Carlson’s shot on the power play.

Alex Killorn struck back for the Bolts in the second, beating Grubauer after some atrocious work in neutral by the Ovi-Kuznetsov line, but TJ Oshie got his second of the night, roofing the puck after a controversial penalty. Chris Kunitz (who, yeah? he’s here now? well alright) notched one to make it a one-goal game heading into the third.

With nine minutes left, Nikita Kucherov carved Taylor Chorney and got some backhand lift to tie it up. The Bolts piled on for the rest of regulation. The Caps iced too many men during 3-on-3 overtime, and Kucherov got the game-winner.

Lightning beat Capitals 4-3 in overtime.

  • TJ Oshie scored twice, first shamelessly stealing John Carlson’s power-play goal in a bald-faced effort to pad his stats and provoke conflict between me and Pat, and then again with a nifty shot on an curious penalty that we shall discuss in the next bullet.
  • So it’s called a faceoff violation and apparently it’s naughty? I watched hardly a moment of preseason hockey, so this is all new to me. I didn’t even know there were rules in faceoffs. I thought it was just Calvinball as long as you didn’t go full-on first scene in The Last Boy Scout. Jon Cooper wasn’t happy about the call, nor were fans in Amelie arena.

  • I should note now that Tampa owned the puck all night. And it wasn’t just one or two bad lines by Washington – it was a nonstop enfilade on Grubi’s net, up and down the lineup, escalating as time went on. It made possible by sloppy play in neutral and mind-bottling defensive decisions. Which brings me to…
  • Taylor Chorney and Aaron Ness. Chorness. The defensive pairing is on regional sports television 2.5 times a week to make a deliberate and exhaustive argument that they are thoroughly unplayable. Ness has eight penalty minutes in three games and under 40 minutes of play. Chorney is fast, but fast doesn’t mean much when your defensive coverage looks like this:

  • The Nikita Kucherov tying-goal was a perfect encapsulation of the Chorness problem. A fast, dynamic player in Kucherov went one-on-one against a defenseman for whom borderline would be a grandiose compliment and made him look as mobile as a fathead sticker under a strobe light. What did Trotz expect there?
  • After two games of flames shooting out of his eyes, Alex Ovechkin played like a mortal man animal again.
  • Okay, now how about Philipp Grubauer?! He got lit up four times, sure, but he was busy for the duration, fending off 40 shots, many of them danger-close. Grubi stayed composed even when his skaters floundered in front of him. He did everything you could reasonably ask of a goalie, and his team repaid him with a big fat L.

Joe B suit of the night

That was a disaster, but at least we had a good debut by the German goalie and some goals for Oshie. Plus, a standings point. Now let’s all sit back and watch the Penguins clown themselves tomorrow!

Full Coverage of Caps at Lightning

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