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Starstruck: Stars beat Caps 4-3

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The Washington Capitals were back home in Chinatown for the first time in seemingly centuries. The Dallas Stars were in the District and this fixture is one where history does not look so hot for the Caps. History would repeat itself Saturday night.

Jason Spezza opened the scoring on a breakaway and only ten seconds later Tyler Pitlick extended the Dallas lead to two. Nicklas Backstrom struck early in the second to split that lead in half. Jamie Benn restored the two goal lead with a layup. Brett Connolly fought back with a batted strike out of mid air soon after. Evgeny Kuznetsov tied things up on the power play.

Jason Dickinson with the OT winner.

Stars beat Caps 4-3.

  • Do the Caps hate their goaltenders or do the Caps goaltenders hate themselves? My column at 11. No, but seriously the Caps defensive zone coverage is still pretty worrisome and they aren’t getting great goaltending to boot. Both of those things were worrisome in stretches last season and the boys ended up solving those issues pretty well come June. Lets hope they repeat more than one thing this campaign.
  • The Caps let in two goals in two seconds in Montreal and then let in two goals in 10 seconds against Dallas Saturday night. Technically, that’s an improvement.
  • Can someone let me know if there is a more pointless talking point in the NHL than home and away splits when talking about special teams? There is no Coors Field equivalent in the NHL for offense.

  • If you have seen the old Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen please call Capital One Arena because they seem to be lost and there are tons of bloggers very worried about their perfect defensive pair children.
  • A very, very sloppy first period led to a significantly better second period. At least in the second the Caps were matching Stars chances with chances of their own. If you’re going to be an open shop defensively and there is no sign of the leaking stopping in your own zone, you gotta combat that with some offensive fireworks of your own.

  • In another segment of tonight’s world of deep, intellectual hockey thoughts by yours truly, I wonder why the Oilers don’t have a central black or brown jersey. What does blue and orange have to do with oil. At least give me some amber.
  • Dmitrij Jaskin was so good that he was getting triple shifted at some point in this game. Dude is an absolute tank along the boards.

  • If you couldn’t tell, I was in a bit of a cantankerous mood on social media tonight. The NHL tried to use the “weird flex” meme on Jakub Vrana getting pants put on his head by Tom Wilson. It didn’t work, they deleted their tweet after my sick burn.
  • The Hershey Bears played the Rochester Americans tonight. The Americans nickname is the “Amerks” and I just want to know who is responsible for that.
  • I thought this game was the best Madison Bowey has looked in a Capitals uniform. I’ll temper my praise just a little because I don’t believe him and his partner Christian Djoos got a single unfavorable zone start the entire game, but they were great either way.
  • I said the second period was significantly better than the first. The third period was better than both. Far fewer grade A chances for the Stars and a lot more action in Ben Bishop‘s kitchen.

Next up the Caps finish their two game, season set against the Edmonton Oilers. It’s only November and we shall not see Connor McDavid again until next season unless the Oilers reach the Stanley Cup Final with the Caps. That’d be even more nuts than an expansion team doing so in their inaugural season.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Stars

Headline photo: Patrick McDermott

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