The Washington Capitals played a thoroughly Capital-y game on Monday night in Buffalo. For forty minutes they were a mix of boredom and badness, giving up chances and goals to a team they should be much better than. But then Alex Ovechkin heaved the entire 19-player roster onto his shoulders and carried them back into the game.
It began with Marcus Johansson setting up Victor Olofsson as the Caps blew a breakout. Jack Eichel made it 2-0 with a god-tier effort on a second period power play.
Suddenly, in the third period, the Caps were a different team — which is to say: a good one. Alex Ovechkin notched his 48th of the season, then Dmitry Orlov tied the game off Ovi’s assist. Brandon Montour “scored” late in the third, but the goal was washed due to Jeff Skinner’s interference against Braden Holtby, pushing us into overtime. There the Caps killed an Orlov trip to survive to the shootout, so here we go with the shootout bullets!
- Eichel did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Oshie did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Reinhart did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Kovalchuk did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Olofsson did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Backstrom did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Dahlin put the biscuit in the basket.
- Kuznetsov put the biscuit in the basket.
- Vesey did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Ovechkin did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Our perfect son Marcus Johansson did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Vrana did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
- Kahun put the biscuit in the basket.
- Panik did NOT put the biscuit in the basket.
Caps lose.
- This game recap is going to be a bit disjointed. Beyond the Caps playing generally pretty badly, they were also aggressively boring for two-thirds of the game. There is no greater hockey sin in my mind.
- So I guess before we get into the details, let’s thank Alex Ovechkin for summoning a mind-bending goal out of nothing at all.
h o w pic.twitter.com/sxM09HGtU6
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 10, 2020
- Ovi is now at 48 on the season, tying David Pastrnak. (I had thought he scored Orlov’s goal for a second too. Oh well.)
- Jack Eichel‘s power-play goal turned the entire Caps PK unit into a bunch of clowns. These passes are perfect.
- Please like my sport(s photographer). He didn’t miss a shift, folks.
What are the chances??
Carly rims a puck around right into the photo hole.
Photographer is a certified #HockeyGuy – gonna shoot thru the pain. #Respect pic.twitter.com/VEDdvSTGFa
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 9, 2020
- Okay, now the drudgery. After a fun game against the Penguins, a whole bunch of Caps problems came back. The defense doesn’t know how to transition to the forwards. The forwards don’t know how to get through neutral. The Sabres had a lot of zone time, and were they a better team they might have scored some more goals with it. The second period was egregiously bad, with the Caps seeming incapable of keeping the Sabres out of high-danger areas.
- But the Caps rallied in the third period, driving play and quality, earning those pivotal goals from Ovechkin and Orlov. They came very close to winning this outright.
- Donya and Julie were at the game; you can see them at the top of this story. Donya, an avowed Jeff Skinner fan, doesn’t think Skinner committed interference on the Montour non-goal. I love Donya. I have no position on whether or not she’s right.
Bold in blue! 💙 #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsSabres pic.twitter.com/QboVbdOpHn
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 9, 2020
I have no idea what we just watched. Those first forty minutes were punishment. And then the last period was actually pretty darn fun. This team– I dunno. They need to figure out who they are, and then they need to let me know.
Anyway, they’re up above the Flyers for the moment.
Jeez. What was that game?
