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New year, not great: Blues beat Caps 5-2

By Chris Cerullo

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January 3, 2019 10:32 pm

The Capitals opened up 2019 with a loss against the league basement dwelling St. Louis Blues. The dropped two points brings the Caps real close to capitulating their division lead to a couple surging Metro foes just below them in the standings.

The lead singer of Matchbox Twenty opened scoring on the evening, but that lead proved Unwell as Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th of the season to bring things Back 2 Good. Brett Connolly gave the Caps their first lead and said lead would evaporate after goals from Colton Parayko and Oskar Sundqvist. Alex Pietrangelo and Tyler Bozak added to the shellacking.

Blues beat Caps 5-2.

  • Alex Ovechkin scored tonight, something he hasn’t done in his previous six games. I wrote this bullet before the game even started. I will keep it in even if he doesn’t score to get the shame I deserve. Yo, he actually scored. Whew. The Great Eight has now tallied 30 goals in a season for 14 straight seasons to start his career, joining Mike Gartner as the only one to do so. GOAT.
  • Another bullet I will write before puck drop. Tom Wilson is going to fight tonight because he has to “answer” for his preseason hit. Hockey man do bad hit, hockey man have to pay for bad hit by punching other hockey man. Two for two, guys and gals. A regular Nostradamus.
  • The first 15 minutes of the first period looked like the Caps were bird-boxing themselves and playing blindfolded. Believe it or not though, I think what they did in the last five or so minutes was better than anything the Blues did in the first 15. Good response to a bad start.

  • There was all this pregame talk about the Blues getting the all star game in 2020 and I was so confused why they were announcing that so early until I realized that, that is next year. That’s gonna take some getting used to.
  • Hey, the power play still sucks. Is it time to make offerings to the PP gods yet? Anyone got a statue we can all pray beneath?
  • The second period was a bit of a disaster for the Caps. Brooks Orpik was pretty awful all game, but his play in this period stood out. Dude’s just old and really, really, really slow, guys. Bring back Jonas Siegenthaler please.
  • All together now, AL-ehx puh-TRAN-geh-loh. Not Peter Angelos, he of Orioles greatness.

  • Folks, I’m worried about how the Caps play defensively with Evgeny Kuznetsov on the ice. In my honest opinion, Kuzy has yet to hit his stride really at all this season and I think a lot of those issues start with his effort in the defensive zone translating to less time with the puck in the offensive zone where he’s magic. I think there’s a hell of a lot of floating and watching in the D zone overall among the Caps top nine forwards of late.
  • I miss Christian Djoos.
  • Braden Holtby wasn’t great tonight, but dude had literally no help. Team defense was absolutely piss poor.
  • Were the Caps on the ice for the third period? What a joke of an effort. Time for some ole fashioned hair dryer treatment from the coaches.
  • I felt like Michal Kempny had a good night, which was very rare for Caps players. Two assists and some heady offensive instincts all game. Still gonna harp on him being absolute steal city. Thanks, Coach Q.

The boys are in Dallas tomorrow night where they historically do not have much success. Who knows though, the Stars may still be too focused on their team CEO ostracizing their two best players.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Blues

Headline photo: Scott Rovak

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