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Merciful overtime winner: Caps beat Blue Jackets 2-1

By Chris Cerullo

 4 Comments

December 27, 2019 9:41 pm

The Washington Capitals were right back into the fray after the holiday break against a Metro Division foe in the Columbus Blue Jackets that they have to solve so far this season. Would the puzzle finally get put together for the good guys?

Jakob Lilja opened the scoring in the second with his first career NHL marker. Carl Hagelin’s first of the season tied the game at one. TJ Oshie mercifully downs Columbus in overtime.

Caps beat Blue Jackets 2-1!

  • The Caps opened this game apparently not realizing the puck had dropped. The Blue Jackets had around four or five odd man rushes and breakaways in the first six or so minutes of the first. The good guys came back and overall controlled the majority of the period, but again lost focus towards the end of the frame which needed more heroics from Ilya Samsonov to remain scoreless.
  • Speaking of Samsonov. Look, Braden Holtby was a goner no matter what before this season even started, but now…Samsonov sparkling like this consistently has cemented that even further.
  • I wonder what the decision making was behind bringing Christian Djoos up instead of Martin Fehervary who impressed in three games with the Caps to start the year. Maybe the thought was that Djoos would be more comfortable with a potential increased NHL workload due to the Caps possibly only having five healthy defensemen or maybe it was just a purely salary related decision at the start of the season?

  • I don’t know how the Caps stayed off the scoreboard in the second. Two great power plays came up empty.
  • The first penalty called in this game was a Tom Wilson “trip” where the player “tripped” took two more steps before toe-picking his way to the ice. They called absolutely nothing in the first period and then warmed up their whistles with…that. My least favorite officiating is inconsistent officiating. The Jackets make their game based on getting away with mini hooks, slashes, and holds and you call that first?.
  • What in the world do the Jackets do to Joonas Korpisalo before he plays the Capitals? The dude is unbeatable.
  • Ian has convinced me that the Caps should find a way to sign Ilya Kovalchuk for the minimum. In his last 81 NHL games, he has 19 goals and 43 points. The dude clearly was never going to work on a rebuilding Los Angeles Kings team, especially with how they normally like to play hockey. I feel like a Carl Hagelin, Lars Eller, Kovalchuk line definitely works at even strength, his shot is still absolutely elite, and he would provide a new ultra dangerous power play wrinkle. He’d also be surrounded by Russian buddies on a Cup contender and I would be able to buy a sick Kovy Caps jersey. What say you all?

  • The Caps utterly dominated the third period. I have zero idea how they didn’t win this game in regulation.
  • Tom Wilson utterly obliterated two Blue Jackets in this game. The first being Alexander Wennberg and the second being Jakob Lilja. Nick Foligno responded to this by picking his spot to fight…Jonas Siegenthaler, the rookie. Usual stuff from him.
  • The garbage ice at home hurts the Caps even more against teams like Columbus. It’s a shame.
  • Has there been a game where more Caps sticks just explode out of nowhere and pucks bounce wrong for them? Voodoo curse confirmed. That’s why their whole lineup is injured, they keep sacrificing body parts to beat the Caps.
  • Hags is finally off the snide. Fantastic pass from Richard Panik and offensive zone keep from Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Next up for the Caps is a quick turnaround in Carolina as they’ll meet the ever annoying Canes in the back half of this back-to-back.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets

Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington

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