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Metro division dust-up: Caps beat Rangers 4-2

By Chris Cerullo

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December 8, 2017 10:32 pm

A match up between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers means a match up between handsome netminders. Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist led their teams into the action for this one, beards and all.

The anthem has been sung, the puck is about to be dropped, Jay Beagle scored, we’ve all sat down ready for the start of this one.

Nicklas Backstrom went bar down on Hank and Michael Grabner struck very late in the period. We were through 40 minutes 2-1.

Jesper Fast tied it with a top shelf effort of his own. Matt Niskanen scored his first of the season to restore the lead. Tom Wilson extended said lead.

Caps beat Rangers 4-2!

  • Jay Beagle scored 14 seconds into the game and I barely got beagle.jpg out in a satisfactory amount of time. That’s the quickest goal of the season so far, topping Alex Ovechkin‘s goal twenty seconds into the home opener.
  • The Caps got off to a hot start, tallying 17 shots alone in the first period. That’s the most shots they’ve had in any first period this season and the second most shots they’ve had in any period (22 shots in 3rd period against the Wild). However, the NBCSWA graphics team got off to the exact opposite of a hot start with this (pay attention to the lines in the top left):
  • Beagle, in his first intermission interview with Smokin’ Al Koken that on his goal he “closed his eyes and hoped for the best”. He also revealed that the team’s nicknames for Chandler Stephenson and Devante Smith-Pelly are Steve-o and D-vo. D-VO, GET THE TABLES.
  • Nicklas Backstrom is now on a goal-scoring streak after not scoring for 20 straight games. His second period tally was his 193rd career goal, tying him with Dave Christian for seventh place on the Capitals’ franchise goals scored list.

  • The Rangers scored late in the second and when I say “late” I mean within the last minute. The goal was the result of Alex Chiasson getting tangled up along the boards and then falling asleep, allowing Michael Grabner all the time in the world to beat Braden Holtby. I’m still really not convinced Chiasson deserves a jersey every night, but the probably alternative to him is now playing in Edmonton.
  • I’m here to provide you a post about a Subban family selfie. Onwards you must click. PK and his brother Malcolm playing each other for the first time is some real cool stuff.
  • Why is the Golden Knights Twitter account like this? Why cant they just be normal and capitalize the first words of their tweets?

  • Andre Burakovsky returned to the lineup after an extended absence due to a broken hand. It’s going to take a few games to get Burt back up to speed, but really nice to see him back.
  • Tom Wilson riggity-rekt Brendan Smith and the latter was not amused. Somehow the Caps couldn’t take advantage of a 3 on 1 as the entire Rangers team tried to fight Wilson over a clean play. Man is Wilson playing some damn good hockey. He created that Niskanen goal with a fantastic move at the blueline and then finished the game off with his own tally.

Joe B suit of the night

Your next Caps action comes on Monday night in New York against the other New York team. The one that wears some orange on purpose.

Full Coverage of Caps vs Rangers

Headline photo: Patrick McDermott

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