The Capitals are in balmy Winnipeg to kick off a week-long road trip, and they look only marginally better than last we saw them. The Caps had a steady effort and enough creative offense to earn a lead over Matty P and Hendy, but an offensive collapse in the final ten minutes cost the Caps a regulation win.
Mark Scheifele kicked us off in the first with a rebound goal on a heavy shift in the Caps’ zone. Late that same period, the top line combined their powers to tie the game, with Nick Backstrom finishing off the sequence from the paint.
In the second period Andre Burakovsky’s rush goal gave Washington the lead, which John Carlson extended after a lovely passing sequence started by TJ Oshie. 🐢🐢🐢 Bryan Little made it a one-goal game with a fast drive with ten minutes let. The Jets owned the remainder of regulation until Mark Scheifele tied it with 15 seconds left.
In OT, Scheifele set up Tyler Myers to put us out of our misery.
Jets beat Caps 4-3 in overtime. Blech.
- Was the ice in Winnipeg really bad or something? That’s weird. It’s like negative degrees up there all the time. Their ice should be like undisturbed arctic ice cores that Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley analyze. But fellas were falling left and right.
- Perhaps to make up for a doleful effort on Sunday, the Caps had a lot more intensity for most of this one. For example, they sure did keep, um [looks at script] okay well it says here “keep pounding their D” but that can’t be right that’s not a thing you can write on a website oh well [hits publish]
Tough shift for Tobias Enström. First, he gets run over by Tom Wilson. Then, seconds later, Alex Ovechkin. pic.twitter.com/WZKfYwpM8P
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 14, 2018
- Andre Burakovsky wasn’t really on the schneid. He scored like five games ago, but with healthy scratches in the recent rearview and lots of negativity following him around, finishing off that drive with linemates Lars Eller and Jets Slayer (I guess?) Alex Chiasson sure helps him make the case to stay in the lineup.
- Matt Hendricks left the game in the second period after a hit from Madison Bowey in the Washington zone. I did not like the hit, which appeared to me both high and blindside.
- During the game, the LA Kings acquired Dion Phaneuf from the Ottawa Senators in a deal that doesn’t have much to do with making hockey teams better or winning championships. Seems to me like Eugene Melnyk just didn’t wanna pay $7 million to the guy every year until 2028 or whatever.
- Washington’s top line (Ovechkin, Backstrom, Wilson) was excellent, driving play and creating chances. The Backstrom goal had the right ingredients: Wilson barreling through Jets players, Ovechkin sucking up attention, and Backstrom being the opportunist at the goal mouth. With his assist, Tom Wilson has 23 points on the season, tying his career high, which wasn’t very high to be honest.
- The Jets surged after the Little goal in an extended shift in the Capitals zone against the Beagle line and Orpik-Bowey pairing. That’s among the weakest five-man units that the Caps have iced in the past decade, but there they were, fending off a comeback on the ice in the final minutes of one-goal game to kick off a road trip. Please thank your home Holtby shrine before you go to bed tonight.
- After the Carlson goal, the Caps had one shot attempt until the end of regulation. That’s almost thirteen minutes of dead ice. 🐢 o hai there turtle emoji I sure am seeing you a lot lately
- With the Jets net empty, Jay Beagle threatened to score from center ice, but Dustin Byfuglien wasn’t having it. Buff slashed Beagle a couple times, sufficient to stop the scoring attempt but hurting Beagle in the process. The Caps center reeled on the bench, and we’ll have to see if he’s okay. (With Craig Laughlin and Joe Beninati musing earlier in the game about Beagle having potentially nursed an injury earlier this season, I’ve got new worries.)
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsJets pic.twitter.com/qgByDW34Mb
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 14, 2018
This was not a good game, but it went profoundly bad at the end. Still, there was a lot to build on here. The Caps funneled offense to the net with traffic (Carlson, Backstrom, bouncing baby boy Andre Burakovsky) nearby to activate it. With dates in Chicago and Minnesota coming up, I’m eager to see what’s next. Hopefully it can last, oh I dunno, lemme just make up a number, how about A FULL SIXTY MINUTES.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Jets
Headline photo: Jonathan Kozub
