The Washington Capitals had their captain back for the first time post-all-star break. Ovi and the boys met with the Nashville Predators at ole Capital One for a nice January hockey match in what some from like 2013 may call the Forsberg bowl.
Hectic first frame. Richard Panik cashed in early, Jarred Tinordi and Mikael Granlund and Rocco Grimaldi all scored in very quick succession to give the Preds a commanding lead. Alex Ovechkin was gifted his 693rd career goal bu Juuse Saros.
Nick Bonino scored for the Caps. Yes, literally. Tom Wilson gave the Caps their second lead of the night. Ryan Johansen burns Braden Holtby for a mistake of his own and Yannick Weber gave the Preds the lead back.
Predators beat Caps 5-4.
- The Caps didn’t necessarily play a bad first period, they just didn’t get a save when they needed it. That’s been an obvious issue for Braden Holtby this season. I’d like two of those three Preds goals stopped.
- Juuse Saros apparently hates Wayne Gretzky because he handed Alex Ovechkin‘s 693rd career goal to the Great Eight on a silver platter disguised as a fluff pass (?) right to the front of his vacated goal. That goal boosted Ovi to sole possession of ninth in NHL all-time goal-scoring, passing Steve Yzerman (682) for good.
- RMNB got a retweet on Donya’s great Seattle maybe Kraken post from Kevin Smith. He joins people like Lil B the BasedGod and Chris Jericho in the RMNB tweet retweeting club. Lil B actually DM’d me after I wrote about him blessing the Caps and asked if I had any music I wanted to work with him on. I did not.
Come down to the adoption center this weekend to meet the latest evacuees! Visit our website for information on adopting one of these special dogs. https://t.co/lLVW01FTES https://t.co/lAaM287Muk
— Homeward Trails (@HomewardTrails) January 30, 2020
- The Caps weren’t very good at all in the second five-on-five, but they got some saves from Holts and a ton of self-implosion from the Predators.
- The Caps power play still sucks eggs. I don’t feel like wasting energy typing on this subject anymore until they actually attempt something structurally to fix it. They’ve also allowed four shorthanded goals in their past seven games.
- Richard Panik Jedi mind-tricked Nick Bonino into shooting the puck into his own goal. That’s easily one of the most direct own goals I have ever seen in hockey and it gave Dick “his” second goal of the night. Thanks, Nick.
- The Predators hired the dude that wasn’t good enough for the New Jersey Devils. Think about that one for a second.
https://twitter.com/CoreyHirsch/status/1222564614287708160
- Another garbage five-on-five period. The defensive lapses and giveaways were utterly ridiculous. Not a big fan of this game as a whole, boys.
- Juuse Djoos. Presented without comment.
- I enjoy Mike Tirico on commentary.
Sammy bench pic of the night.
NBCSN immediately panned to Ilya Samsonov on the bench after he gave up his third goal in the first period. pic.twitter.com/Luh0BjSsHM
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 30, 2020
The Caps wrap up the first month of 2020 with a trip to Canada’s capital to play the garbage Ottawa Senators.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Predators
Headline photo: NBCSN