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Caps beat Senators 7-2 in an actual hockey game that counted for points

By Peter Hassett

 2 Comments

February 26, 2019 9:38 pm

The Washington Capitals played their first post-trade-deadline game at home on Tuesday, hosting the suddenly decapitated Ottawa Senators to a messy, goal-packed hour of hockey.

Here’s where I guess I’m gonna do a goal recap. This’ll be fun. Okay, here goes: Oscar Lindberg scored his first goal for Ottawa capping off a heavy shift for the Sens. Anthony Duclair then notched a power-play goal in his second game for the team, putting the Caps in a two-goal hole early against a weak team.

Oh no, y’all.

JK, watch this.

Then top-line Tom Wilson scored on a bump-set pass from Ovechkin, then Eller scored on a pass from Orlov, then John Carlson got a PPG from high in the slot, then Oshie used some level-six wizard cantrips to put Brooks Orpik’s rebound in the net, then Oshie did it again. That was all before the second intermission. Kuznetsov made it a touchdown early in the third. Both teams went through the motions for the last 19 minutes.

Caps win.

Honestly, this one does not deserve a real Bailamos:

  • In the last few days Ottawa dealt away Mark Stone (Vegas), Matt Duchene (Columbus) and Ryan Dzingel (Columbus again). They were not icing a real lineup for this game, even if they do have some decent young players on their roster.
  • And yet, the Caps went without a shot on goal for the game’s first ten minutes. The first SOG belonged to deadline day survivor, Andre Burakovsky. In keeping with the game’s shift in momentum, the Caps denied the Senators a shot on goal for the first ten minutes of the second period.
  • I just wanna call out how adorable this kid is.
  • Evgeny Kuznetsov took a puck to his hand or something late in the second period, but he returned for the third and scored on his very first shift.
  • TJ Oshie has now had four two-goal games this season. He’s been pretty terrific through the whole campaign if you ask me, with and without the puck. What he did to score his first goal is some next-level stuff:

  • Wes McCauley was here. He made himself heard.

  • The pregame ceremony featuring Willie O’Ree and John Lewis was great. I applaud any outreach that broadens the NHL’s audience, though it’s hard not to be reminded of the Caps parting with their only two black players, Madison Bowey and Devante Smith-Pelly, just prior to the deadline. That’s an unfortunate and awkward coincidence. (I have a sneaking and happy suspicion that we’ll see DSP again.)
  • We got to see a couple great plays out of Nick Jensen — once with him flying up the ice for a rush attack, though he didn’t actually excel much in his pairing with Brooks Orpik, who recorded an assist — his second in as many games. I wonder how long we’ll see the Jensen-Orpik pairing.
  • From the Buy-N-Large out-of-town scoreboard: The Canes continue their absurd offensive tear by whipping the Kings while Pittsburgh appear to have edged out Columbus, which means the Metro playoff race will remain tight. It’s gonna be a fun finish to the rego season.
  • This was Washington’s first seven-goal game since the season opener against Boston.

So  we had a typically terrible start by the Caps and then absolute domination for the next fifty minutes. That’s a weird way to make a living in the NHL, but I guess it works. For now. At one point in the third period, Joe Beninati (whose tie tonight I did not love) described the game as having a preseason feel. That’s about right in more ways than one. The Caps are probably going to make the playoffs, and they’ve got their team finalized, so now we’re just sorta biding our time as we watch them tune up.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Senators

Headline photo: Patrick Smith

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