The Washington Capitals played another chippy, sloppy, error-prone game, blowing a winnable game against the New York Rangers and nearly losing control of the Metropolitan Division in the process.
Carl Hagelin kicked off scoring with a goal against his former team. Mika Zibanejad, whose name you will hear a few times here, responded with a power-play goal in the first, then a delayed-penalty goal in the second period. Ilya Kovalchuk’s first goal tied the game, setting off a scoring spurt. Tony Deangelo put the Rangers up after a great pass from Panarin, but Garnet Hathaway scored soon after– deflecting a shot by Michal Kempny on a similar play.
Twelve seconds into the third period, Mika Zibanejad secured a hat trick and gave the Rangers a new lead. Alex Ovechkin tied it up yet again with a lovely wristshot with ten minutes to go. The Caps committed a billion penalties late in the game with the score tied, so Zibanejad got his fourth goal. In the final minute of regulation, Ovechkin found a rebound to tie the game yet again.
Overtime was over in a blink as Zibanejad won it with his fifth goal of the game.
Caps lose in overtime.
- It’s criminal what the Rangers are doing to Henrik Lundqvist, who backed up Georgiev tonight. The people who benched him should be in actual jail. No. Dungeon. One million years dungeon. Hank is king. Well, tonight Mika is king, but you get the idea.
- In his fifth game as a Washington Capital, Ilya Kovalchuk has scored his first goal. It was gorgeous. Go watch it. I’ll wait.
- Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad notched his fourth career hat-trick and first-ever five-goal game against the goal-bleeding Caps. He was a MONSTER.
- That third goal was a groaner from Evgeny Kuznetsov, invoking the wrath of Alan May and a couple cranky tweets in our menchies comparing him to Alex Semin. Except…
- Semin’s worst defensive season as a Cap (2.4 xG per hour) was miles better than Kuznetsov’s last three seasons (2.7, 3.0,
and 2.8 xG per hour). - I’d say Ilya Samsonov seemed a bit off, but the position players didn’t makes his job easy. If it feels like I say this every game, I definitely definitely do.
- Our own Donya was at tonight’s game along with the good folks of the Puck ‘ Er Up podcast. Here’s some good picks of NYR’s Hockey Is For Everyone night.
A pleasant surprise that it’s #PrideNight at Madison Square tonight! 🏳️🌈 #HIFE #HockeyIsForEveryone #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/1dn6bfQhDr
— Donya (@virtual_don) March 5, 2020
New York City Gay Men’s Chorus almost bringing me to tears here 😭🏳️🌈 #HIFE #HockeyIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/X3SieZEOv4
— Donya (@virtual_don) March 6, 2020
Intermission interview with SPC Erin Holmes. What an incredible woman and story. Got married to her wife the day after DADT was repealed. In her DRESS BLUES! #HIFE #HockeyIsForEveryone #PrideNight pic.twitter.com/vUHCS3ZR3T
— Donya (@virtual_don) March 6, 2020
- Richard Panik has been heating up lately. He’s got four points in three games, and had a couple great looks in this one.
- Lars Eller got busted for a roughing late in the third period, but it could have been much worse. He really hit Brendan Smith from behind and into the boards, but he clearly tried to minimize the impact beforehand. Still, not an okay hit and worth punishing. And I’m relieved Smith appeared to be unhurt. Eller obviously realized the error of his ways as he — just kidding, he committed another penalty like five minutes later.
- Alex Ovechkin: 47 goals. Three behind Mike Gartner all time. Tied with Pastrnak this season. Even a crap game is made better by a little Ovi. He was lucky to get the looks he did; the Rangers countered him superbly.
Dark checkers and a green tie #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsRags pic.twitter.com/IBvx3EGtK5
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 6, 2020
Amazing performance from Zibanejad. Wow.
Out of town, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres. So the Metro race continues to heat up.
Meanwhile, the Caps have been one of the worst defensive teams in hockey for more than a month now. They deserved to get blown out of the barn in this game. That it was close it all — that the Caps hold a tie with the Flyers — is owed mostly to Ovi magic.
