The Washington Capitals walloped the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night, but the only thing folks are gonna talk about tomorrow is how a Caps player spat on a Ducks players. Still, let’s go through the motions with the hockey part of the hockey game before we can talk about the sideshow.
Richard Panik finally got his first goal as a Cap after a blazing fast start by the home team. Alex Ovechkin added a power-play marker in the second period, and then the universe exploded as Chandler Stephenson scored and fights broke out. The Caps killed a long penalty in the third period, then Jakub Vrana exploited a turnover to make it 4-0.
The Ducks cracked Holtby’s shutout during a supersized power play in the third and Deslauriers added another with a couple minutes left, but they ran out of runway. Tom Wilson got an empty-netter.
Caps win 5-2!
- I mostly want to talk about the madness here, but other stuff happened too. One example, John Carlson‘s points are already at 26, which is another kind of madness.
- Richard Panik had a bleh start to the season. He wasn’t clicking with the team, and then he got hurt. But the Caps’ fast start in this game helped him on his way to his first goal as a Cap. The first of many, I hope.
- Ten for Vrana, 15 for Ovi, blah blah blah, they’re amazing, they’re so much fun to watch, yadda yadda, I love them entirely, you know the bit.
- Musical interlude.
- Okay, so, the Ducks owned the second period. They were controlling play, but they just couldn’t crack Braden Holtby. They looked increasingly frustrated, especially when Washington’s fourth line got some zone time late in the period. Brendan Leipsic (5’10”, 180 lbs, sleeps in a shoebox) retaliated with a hard, clean hit on Erik Gudbranson, which shook the play up enough for Chandler Stephenson to score his third goal of the season. After that, everything went buckwild, culminating with Garnet Hathaway allegedly hocking a loogie at Gudbranson.
- Hathaway was assessed a match penalty for that. The commissioner will have to review the play, and I expect there will be no suspension. Match penalties are for egregious acts that can in injury. Spitting is not that. Spitting is just a Total Dick Move. It should have been a misconduct.
I think it's extremely unlikely the suspension stands. Match penalties are for injury. The list of infractions that can result in a match penalty is a total different level than spitting. pic.twitter.com/wjPTokMKrW
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) November 19, 2019
- TJ Oshie‘s double minor for high-sticking effectively cost Braden Holtby an otherwise well-earned shutout. Holtby was great when he had to be and lucky the rest of the time. He’s slowly digging his way out from a very bad start to the season. I’ll have more on this tomorrow.
- I don’t like Panic and the Disco. They represented the hairmetalification of a subgenre I have enjoyed a bunch. Gimme Motion City Soundtrack instead.
Grey! #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsDucks pic.twitter.com/NFVnReFPCE
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) November 19, 2019
Friends, don’t spit on people you don’t like. It’s unsanitary and widely seen as rude. Instead, just say “bless your heart” or something like that and then go to your apartment and stew over it all weekend and then develop an anxiety disorder. That’s my advice to you.
Anyway, fun game. Weird game. Wish Holtby got the shutout. Hathaway won’t get suspended. Take it to the bank.
