The Caps had little to fight for on Monday night in St Louis. They already had the division and home ice locked up with 100 standings points and counting, and the team was weary from having played in Pittsburgh just last night, but I guess playing spoiler for the Blues proved to be sufficient motivation.

Vladimir Tarasenko owned the lone goal of the first period, but the Caps came back furious in the second – first with Backstrom’s 20th, then a solo effort from Chiasson, then a highlight-reel goal from Andre Burakovsky.  Patrik Berglund kept it close with a sharp-angle deflection to make it 3-2 heading into the third. Ovi got the empty netter in the third.

Caps beat Blues 4-2.

• Alex Ovechkin collided with Oskar Sundqvist behind the net in the first period. Ovi crashed into the boards, and then just sorta chilled there for a bit. It looked bad, but Ovi is made of sterner stuff. Actually, I’m starting to wonder if all these scares are just Ovi being overly dramatic. Ovi was fine, but he probably doesn’t need to play again before Game One, right?
• With his goal, Nick Backstrom hit the twenty-goal mark. He’s got three straight seasons at or above 20.
• Alex Chiasson caught a nice pass from from Jakub Jerabek and turned it into a goal-scorer’s goal. If Barry Trotz is using these last few games as auditions for depth players headed into the playoffs, then, um, I hope he was checking Instagram during this goal.
• Andre Burakovsky‘s goal will be on highlight reels for a while. These are some damn fine moves. I wonder if Chiasson’s goal got him spooked.
• I did not love the performance from Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen, who kinda need to button up prior to the first round. Orlov got wheeled quite a bit prior to the Tarasenko goal.
• Speaking of – Niskanen got busted for a high stick that was very clearly a followthrough, but then John Carlson got hit up high on a non-followthrough: no call.
• Capitals backup goalie Braden Holtby had a solid outing, He saw a ton of rubber, and the only ones that got past him were on defensive breakdowns and bad bounces. He put up a glove save on Tarasenko in the third that was as scintillating as Burakovsky’s goal. So, is he still the backup goalie? (Prob, yeah. But this is a good problem to have.)
• Feel the drama of Alex Ovechkin’s 46th goal of the season: a casual empty netter from the blue line during a 5-on-5 power play. Feel the excitement. Always intense.

#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsBlues pic.twitter.com/DHtoYhegph

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) April 3, 2018

The Blues had about a 70 percent chance of making the loffs prior to tonight. That is lower now. This Washington win is a gift to the Colorado Avalanche. Now let’s just hope no one got dinged up too bad.

Full Coverage of Caps at Blues

Headline photo: Dilip Vishwanat