Hey, everyone! Welcome back. Wednesday’s season opener in St Louis also marks the start of RMNB’s 10th year. Let’s get silly.
The Washington Capitals kicked off 2019-20 limply… for about 15 minutes. Clawing back from a two-goal deficit, the Caps served the reigning champion St Louis Blues some darn good hockey on their way to Jakub Vrana’s big overtime winner.
The Caps looked adrift in the first period, allowing Sammy Blais to score an early goal and Alex Pietrangelo to add another on the power play. Alex Ovechkin responded with his first goal of the season, and then Dmitry Orlov added a beautiful power-play goal in the second period. A tense third period gave us no decision, so our first game of the year got supersized, where Jakub Vrana won it in overtime.
Caps win!
- Puck drop was late, though that was understandable. The Blues raised their franchise’s first Stanley Cup Championship banner in a modest ceremony before the game. It didn’t quite have the pomp that the Caps brought to their celebration, but I’m still happy for ’em. Now it’s time to get that bad boy back.
- The Caps of the first period looked not at all like a contender for said championship. The Blues kept them in their own zone for long stretches, and what little offense there was depended on long-shot dump-and-chases moves. Not a great start, but the good news is it didn’t last.
- Doc Emrick pronounces Vrana like it’s a South American freshwater fish.
- I had Alex Ovechkin pegged for an Ovi Shot from the Ovi Spot to kick off the season, but he gave us a fake-shot-finesse-move-through-the-slot instead. Poor Jay Bouwmeester.
- The second and third periods gave us a much, much better Caps team. They drove play on all four lines — even the really crummy line that I’ll whine about below did fine in the middle frame. Dmitry Orlov got a gorgeous goal on a late-period slapshot earned from playing a lot of offense. That was the first great hockey I’ve seen from the team since late March.
- The best line by a thousand miles was the temporary second line of Jakub Vrana, Lars Eller, and TJ Oshie. With Evgeny Kuznetsov suspended, this trio spent nearly every shift on attack. I wouldn’t mind one bit if it stuck around beyond game three.
- Martin Fehervary was a bit uneven in his first NHL game. He had some smart plays, but he also got busted for a delay-of-game penalty right after knocking the Caps’ net off its moorings– which as of this season means the team cannot change personnel before the next faceoff. Chalk it up to the jitters.
- The Blues patch on their uni, designed, apparently by Mr. Patterson’s third grade art class. Congrats to 18 children all named Aiden, Caden, and Braeden.
- Chandler Stephenson had one shot on goal and two shots that missed. That’s… well, that’s more than I expected. I guess that’s all I’ll say for now.
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) October 2, 2019
You’re Welcome of the Night
There’s not a ton you can learn from the first hour-plus of hockey. I don’t know yet who looks good or who lost a step. I don’t know who has chemistry and who’s going to slump. I liked what I saw, but it’s too soon to know anything with any confidence. So here’s something I do know for sure: I’m very happy to have hockey back, and to have you fine people back as well. Let’s have a great year together. I love you. See you Friday.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Blues
Headline photo: Dilip Vishwanat
