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The Captain steps up! Caps beat Canes 5-4 (OT)

By Peter Hassett

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January 2, 2018 10:36 pm

While your good good young American boys were roughing up the naughty Russian boys in the World Juniors tourney, the Washington Capitals kicked off 2018 (“Twenty Nate-teen: Let’s get Schmidt-y this year!“) on the road with the Carolina Hurricanes. Lemme tell you ’bout it.

Victor Rask kicked us off with a goal, and if you don’t recognize him on the Caps roster, that’s because he plays for the other guys. Don’t worry – Washington responded by digging deep into their lineup to summon goals from Devante Smith-Pelly and Alex Chiasson. The second period found Dmitry Orlov extending the lead with a second effort on a solo drive, but that dang Rask struck again to keep it 3-2 after two.

Elias Lindholm tied the game for the Canes on a long shift in the Caps zone, then Teuvo Teravainen put ’em up while the Caps fell apart in their own zone. At that point the Captain stepped up, scoring after a pass from Nick Backstrom, who had exploited a failed clear. An iffy check by Tom Wilson put the Caps a man down for the final two minutes, but Braden Holtby stood fast to force overtime, where Alex Ovechkin finished strong!

Caps beat Canes 5-4!

  • Six of the last eight Caps games have gone to overtime. (Two to the shootout.) That gets you standings points, but it’s not super impressive.
  • John Carlson coughed up the puck so hard on the Canes’ first goal. My YMCA youth soccer coach did not teach my 8-year-old self many of that sport’s nuances, but he did underline this point: don’t do a cross-ice pass in front of your own net, ya dingus.
  • What’s with Carolina players having names like better-known players on other teams? Fleury took a penalty? Really, how, from the net? No, he’s a defenseman for the Canes. But hey, Rask scored! Wow, a goalie-goal! You hardly ever see those! No, he plays center for the Canes. For real? Okayyy. Yeah, in net is Ward. Nice try. You’re talking about Cam Ward, not Joel Ward. I know that one because one is a famous hockey player who I admire and the other one is not a very good goalie.
  • e.g. Dmitry Orlov getting his own rebound here. Good on Dima for activating and being tenacious, but also, not a great second effort from Ward.

  • Evgeny Kuznetsov did not have much of an offensive presence, but he did commit two penalties: a cross-check (the Canes scored on the resulting PP) and a slash. Kuzy’s linemate, TJ Oshie, looks okay on the stat sheet since he returned from a concussion, but he doesn’t look very great on the ice, right?
  • With Andre Burakovsky scratched and Matt Niskanen hurt, I was worried about this one, but I was not worried for the top defensive pair of John Carlson and Christian Djoos. I was wrong, like usual. Djoos and Carlson were on their heels all night. Madison Bowey had more time on attack but was uneven too. One particular backcheck by 22 was either an impressive effort or an obvious penalty. He was also on for the Canes go-ahead goal, which was a total mess.
  • Two quick requests: 1) please explain this handshake between Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin, and 2) put them on the top line together again please. Thank you.
  • Alex Chiasson and Devante Smith-Pelly both scored. Chandler Stephenson had a huge assists. Chiasson has scored seven goals this season. Maybe I need to re-examine my assumptions about who is dragging down whom on the fourth line.
  • After precisely half the season, Alex Ovechkin has 26 goals. Ovi’s doing some different stuff this year, getting goals from different places. I wonder how the back half will look. I should watch those games and then write about them and then you can read it and we can yell at each other in comments.
  • Nick Backstrom was questionable to play with – I assume – a case of the ol’ north and south, but he felt good enough to get a tasty apple on Ovi’s grape.

So that was a messy game. The Canes are darn good. They force their opponents to make mistakes, which, with the Caps sometimes is really not necessary. But an ugly game need not be a loss when you’ve got Alex Ovechkin on your roster.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Hurricanes

Headline photo: Gregg Forwerck

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