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That was needed: Caps win 3-2

By Patrick Holden

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February 27, 2018 10:39 pm

Erik Karlsson was in DC to play hockey on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, it was for the away team, not the home team.

With about five minutes to go in the first, Matt Niskanen hopped out of the box and received a stretch pass. He then dropped it to TJ Oshie. Oshie found Evgeny Kuznetsov cutting to the net, who deposited the puck into the net for a 1-0 lead.

Early in the second, Tom “#TopLineTom” Wilson put the Caps up 2-0 with a snipe from the circle. Just before the period ended, number 92 in red struck again to put the good guys up 3-1.

Erik “not a Capital” Karlsson pulled the Sens within one in the third.

Caps win 3-2! 

  • Let’s get this out of the way up front: the decision to scratch Christian Djoos is a terrible coaching decision. Sure, it’s just one regular season game…and yet, it’s not just one regular season game. The decision-making process behind scratching Djoos is the same nonsense that gave us Mike Weber in for Nate Schmidt in a playoff game, which tee’d up the winning goal for the Pens.
  • Early in the game, the Caps tried a power play zone entry along the right wall and it worked! This approach was so successful with Marcus Johansson and the team should go back to it more often than they have this season. Enough of this “Kuzy walking down the middle as Plan A” stuff.
  • Tom Wilson had a first period scrap and temporarily went to the locker room for repairs. If Wilson gets hurt doing something like fighting Matt Calvert after he butt ends Alex Ovechkin, I’m good with it. But, Wilson has been too good on the first line to potentially lose to injury over a silly “fire up the boys” scrap early in the game.
  • Jakub Vrana, and the whole second line really, came out ready to play tonight.
  • Food for thought:

  • When Kuzy did shoot tonight, good things happened! If his line keeps playing like that, his linemates will get some goals too.
  • The bottom-six was pretty meh tonight.
  • Zayn vs Corbin tonight on Smackdown? Heel vs heel? Blah. I’m so old, I remember when Smackdown was good.
  • What do you all think of the new guys on D? There are some things to like about their games, for sure, but I’m not sure how either of them are an improvement over Djoos.
  • The Caps had two five-on-three penalty kills tonight, not something you’ll see very often. The only bad call of the four was the one on Wilson, which was strictly a reputation call and not because he did anything to deserve it (or, if he did deserve it, then even it up and call the Sens too).
  • A needed two points! Sure, it was a close game against one of the league’s worst teams at home, but that’s two more points in the bank for the good guys in red.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Senators

Headline image: Patrick Smith

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