After another long break, the Caps returned to action on Wednesday by hosting the rebuilding New York Rangers. A surprisingly uneven performance from the home team gave the Rangers every opportunity to stay in the game, turning what should have been two easy points into an overtime nail-biter.
The Rangers scored first, with Mika Zibanejad cleaning up a tasty rebound from Neal Pionk. The Caps responded with John Carlson’s monster slapshot during a power play, tying the score after twenty minutes. The second period was a bit sloppy, but Ovechkin opened up scoring with an Ovi Shot from the Spot. Jim Vesey got a lucky bounce off Devante Smith-Pelly to score a power-play goal of his own, which I guess was infuriating to Ovechkin, so he got another one before the period was up. Chris Kreider restored the tie with a tip-in in the third, which pushed us out of rego and into overtime, where Matt Niskanen cleaned up a rebound to end it.
Caps win 4-3 in overtime!
- Much ado has been made of the Caps’ woe at faceoffs in their first five games, but that ado did not take hold here. Faceoffs en masse don’t matter much, and five games tell us nothing – as we saw when John Carlson recorded a excellent goal with a set play off a faceoff.
John Carlson's third goal of the season ties the Caps and Rangers up 1-1 pic.twitter.com/mksQ9LNuT0
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) October 17, 2018
- With Nathan Walker on the fourth line, the Caps surprisingly got their best puck play from their grinders. (Everyone did pretty well: only the top line was notably underwater, with the Eller line above even at long last.) Walker didn’t show up on the scoreboard much aside from that costly third-period holding call, but he didn’t look out of place either. I suspect folks will remember the hold tomorrow though.
- With his first two-goal game since way back on October 10, Alex Ovechkin is back at goal-per-game pace, notching two on good ol’ Hank Lundqvist, who, speaking of – here’s an awesome stat from Ben Raby:
#ALLCAPS Alex Ovechkin picks up his 24th career goal vs. #NYR Lunqvist. It's Ovechkin's highest goal-scoring total vs. any opposing goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury 23x) @CapitalsRadio
— Ben Raby (@BenRaby31) October 18, 2018
- Do we dislike Hank? I know he’s one of those big Metro goalies and he’s playing for our rival, but do we dislike him? Am I supposed to think he’s actually secretly sucks? Is that what you’re asking of me, you monsters?!
- Rangers D Neal Pionk, who was called up after the Rangers gave up last season, got three assists.
- Welp. Bren has ruined Rangers head coach David Quinn for me.
wait a hecking minute. when did bountiful cumberbund start coaching for the rangers? the dude really is everywhere huh pic.twitter.com/TN4mp4lQKu
— b. (@youripides) October 18, 2018
- I thought Braden Holtby had a strong night, goals-against aside, but he did need help at one point from impromptu goalie Christian Djoos.
No Joe B suit of the night, but I did make this photoshop so I could see what Borpik would look like without a nose, what do you think, I’m sorry, I’ll delete it
I think I saw some underlying improvements, but goof-ups and bad breaks obscured whatever progress was made since the weekend. This was not the statement game I was hoping for, but I appreciate the big finish.
The Caps have a day off before their last home game of the month. After the Panthers on Friday, a road trip to the far reaches of Canada and the drudgery that is late-night games follows.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Rangers
Headline photo: Patrick McDermott
