The Washington Capitals did something they haven’t done in a while: win a game in entertaining, convincing fashion. And as a bonus, they did it against the Penguins.
It was a fun first period, with the Caps securing an early lead off Nic Dowd’s stick, then extending it with Nicklas Backstrom and Richard Panik. The second period came and went without a goal, but Nic Dowd scored a shorthanded goal early in the third.
Sidney Crosby snapped the shutout as Brenden Dillon turned the puck over in the defensive zone, then Evgeni Malkin made it 4-2 with a power-play, but TJ Oshie returned fire with a quick shot from the slot to restore the three-goal lead and win.
Caps win.
- The fourth line were the heroes today, generating two goals at even strength plus a shorthanded goal from their center. They set a tone the whole team followed: be aggressive and physical, and create high/low chances from the slot.
- That shorty from Nic Dowd was his third of the season. It also gave him his first career multi-goal game. His whole line — in its newly Panik’d iteration — thoroughly menaced Matt Martin’s net all game.
goal scorers for caps today so far:
nic
nick
dick
nic— former wild card spot haver (@OVECHKlN) March 7, 2020
- Three of those goals came early as Washington seemed to be exorcising some of their demons in the first period.
- Left out of the fun today was the top line, who couldn’t get anything going during five-on-five play. I’m not enjoying the Ovechkin-Kuznetsov force dyad much lately.
Just gonna say that I don't love the top line during 5v5. pic.twitter.com/EaoYYIRXMi
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) March 7, 2020
- Another great game from Braden Holtby. He still had to stand up tall against a handful of odd-man rushes that came in the game’s back half.
- One of those odd-man rushes came from Jared McCann. Holtby stopped him, but then McCann got a penalty shot. So Holtby had to do double duty.
- We don’t get a ton of opportunities to sing Nick Jensen‘s praises, but he’s been pretty solid lately, and he had a sweet hip check in the third period.
- One problem we can’t overlook: the Caps still have a discipline problem, going shorthanded five times, including a long two-man advantage in the first period. Despite every other positive thing today, the penalties do not describe a model for success.
A St. Patrick's Day preview #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsPens pic.twitter.com/NNLOCkE8wQ
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 7, 2020
There were a lot of questions about this team prior to today’s game. The viability of their current style and approach wasn’t really certain. And while this wasn’t a perfect game, it was certainly a statement: Don’t count out the Caps just yet.
Hooray!
