The fiercest of rivalries came our way for Wednesday’s rivalry night as Chicago visited DC.
Nicklas Backstrom had not scored in 21 games. That ended tonight as he was on the finishing end of a tic-tac-toe goal to put the Caps up 1-0 in the first. Minutes later, Tom Wilson scored from the #WillySpot he always scores from to put the Caps up 2-0. But the first line wasn’t done yet. Soon enough, Wilson was stopped on a breakaway (yes, really) but Ovechkin put away the rebound to stretch the lead to 3-0. The Blackhawks made it 3-1 late in the first when Lance Bouma (who is a real NHL player) put home a rebound.
The Blackhawks dominated the second period, but Braden Holtby stayed strong. Late in the period, Brett Connolly notched a power play goal to extend the lead back to three.
In the third, Mr. Rodeo, Evgeny Kuznetsov, put the home team up 5-1. With under five minutes to play, Jonathan Toews turned an Ovechkin miscue into a breakaway goal to make the game 5-2. Tom freaking Wilson added an empty-net goal to cap off a four-point night.
Caps beat Blackhawks 6-2!
- Tom Wilson decided to play hockey. Tom Wilson should do that more often, especially considering that he’s getting an opportunity to play on the first line. By the way, that penalty call on him in the second period was hot garbage.
- Wilson has 13 points in 25 games after tonight’s four point effort. Not bad. Not bad at all.
- Dmitry Orlov’s pass to Wilson on the Caps third goal deserves its own bullet. This is that bullet. This is also a bullet about the tooth Orlov lost tonight from a high stick. RIP Orlov’s tooth.
- The Caps tried a lot of stretch passes tonight, many of them of the aerial variety. It led to the second goal and a few other chances throughout the night. That seems like awfully good scouting to me.
- Before the Caps went up by three goals, Braden Holtby had a few big stops to keep the game scoreless.
- Holtby was also excellent again during the second period as the Blackhawks surged to try to get back in the game. Thanks to Braden, they were held at bay.
- One pro of these national teevee games is getting Bob McKenzie between periods. Of course, there are also cons that come along with the national broadcasts…
- #WillyFacts:
Tom Wilson has a goal and two assists, his second-career game with at least three points. His last came on Jan. 13, 2017, also against the Chicago Blackhawks (1g, 2a).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 7, 2017
- After the Caps went up 3-0, Chicago recorded 21 of the next 22 shots in the game. My column:
Idea: Try to make the score 4-1 instead of trying to prevent the score from becoming 3-2
— RMNB (@russianmachine) December 7, 2017
- Brett Connolly has two goals with the first power play unit since TJ Oshie got hurt against San Jose. The lesson here is that lots of players can succeed on that first unit given all the talent out on the ice.
- The Jay Beagle line got a lot of time with the Orpik-Carlson pairing tonight against the Towes line. I could do without Beagle and Orpik begin deployed together intentionally.
- Multiple people showed up in our Twitter mentions asking if this is a Bailamos night. IT IS NOT. A 5-2 win against an opponent in the other conference on a Wednesday in December doesn’t do it for me. I apologize for having standards here, people!
- Okay that last Wilson goal changed my mind.
No Joe B suit of the tonight so here are Big Pete’s shoes of the night
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 6, 2017
