The Washington Capitals jumped out to a commanding lead early in Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, but a late-game surge by the home team almost made it interesting. Almost.
Tom Wilson scored the game’s first goal, taking a pass from Ovi on his knees. Brett Connolly made it 2-0 with an in-and-out goal that required an official review to be ruled a goal.
In the second period, Alex Ovechkin got left alone on the Ovi Spot to record his 46h goal of the season. Andre Burakovsky stayed red hot with a solo effort, then Nicklas Backstrom caught a goal-line pass from Jakub Vrana to roof the five-spot. Before the second period was up, Claude Giroux set up rookie Philippe Myers for his first NHL goal.
Giroux opened the third period with an early goal as well, and the Caps’ lead diminished to two with 12 minutes left when Scott Laughton got a clear shot up the slot past Holtby.
Caps win! Five in a row!
- The Capitals allowed the first goal of the game in every game since the Sabres game on February 23. Tonight they snuffed that streak with a simple goal by Tom Wilson assisted by a brilliant pass from Alex Ovechkin.
- Andre Burakovsky seems to have handled his fourth-line demotion in the right spirit. He’s got six points in his last eight games. Burakovsky’s goal chased Flyers goalie Brian Elliott from the net. Cam Talbot relieved for the remainder.
- For the sake of our documentation, here’s how Gritty commemorated the big Bryce Harper signing.
Flyers and Gritty welcoming Bryce Harper to Philly
Washington may be up 1-0 but Philly got Bryce so that’s a W#Flyers#Phillies⚾️ pic.twitter.com/bJEncgeOjV
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) March 7, 2019
- (John Walton chimed in on the radio call.)
- In-arena entertainment did not, as far as I know, mention the Philadelphia Fusion whipping the Washington Justice 3-1 in Overwatch League last week, that’s right, I do Peter’s Esports Corners even in recaps now, you can’t escape it, pick up the sticks, let’s go dood.
- Like a bunch of other people, I assumed Brett Connolly‘s hard shot in the second period hit the crossbar. I didn’t even know the play went under review, but it turns out the shot banked off the camera box — past the goal line — before popping back out. Connolly’s got 17 goals, and that’s awesome. Here’s how we found out:
Conno snipes the camera for his 17th of the season to put the #Caps up 2-0! #CapsFlyers pic.twitter.com/kenjzFiIB1
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 7, 2019
- And here’s what the league said:
- Maybe next time cover Ovi, capiche?
We already have an absurd suit 1 minute into the game pic.twitter.com/ovEvFwBnEZ
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 7, 2019
^^^ Not Joe B’s suit of the night, but yeah, woof
I enjoyed so much of this game that I’m not even going to get grumpy about the last 20 minutes and 12 seconds.
The Caps have one more (relatively) easy game before things get hairy. Come hang out with us on Friday, and let’s watch ’em rack up some more points while they can.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Flyers
Headline photo: Bruce Bennett
