The Washington Capitals played a real-life hockey game against the Carolina Hurricanes and it felt extremely weird…but also extremely right.
Things just made sense, even more, when Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring from his office. Vincent Trocheck, noted Caps killer, got some black magic luck to tie things for the Canes. Evgeny Kuznetsov finished off a beautiful passing play to restore the Caps lead. That dude again, Ovi slammed home a great feed from Tom Wilson to extended said lead.
Teuvo Teravainen drew the Canes back within one on a five-on-three advantage early in the third.
Caps beat Hurricanes 3-2!
- Hockey is back and the Caps actually looked pretty darn good in their first real-ish period of bubble play. We saw some particularly great stuff from the top line which is a good sign because they’ll need that trio to produce and produce big if the franchise is to win its second Stanley Cup.
- Alex Ovechkin scored immediately because he is Alex Ovechkin.
- The Russian troika was at it again for the Caps second goal as some sweet tic-tac-toe passing led to Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s tap-in to restore the Caps lead in the first. Спасибо.
IT’S PLAYOFF EXHIBITION BUBBLE HOCKEY O’CLOCK! #ALLCAPS #LETSGOCAPS #SOCIALLYDISTANCEROCKINGTHERED #ROCKTHERED Saffy Bean is READY! #SAFFYBEANGAMEFACE pic.twitter.com/LqRaU5o8KK
— Ovie the Bulldog (@OvietheBulldog) July 29, 2020
- I thought the Caps looked the better of the teams again in the second. Tons of great zone entries, defensemen activating well, power play looked dangerous, and they had good overall defensive coverage. These are all things that are very nice to see as they were not happening when play was stopped due to the pandemic.
- The referee in-arena announcements were all seemingly played very garbled audio-wise and the alien speak made just as much sense as some of their past calls.
- Phenomenal rush up the ice and pass from Tom Wilson which set up Ovi’s technical “fiftieth” goal of the season. David Pastrnak clearly meant best overall player not just goal scorer.
- Dmitry Orlov is standing out to me as the guy that looks like he’s in the best shape out of the break. Dima was flying.
San Jose Sharks about to sign Elliotte Friedman pic.twitter.com/ngJMPTyPta
— Claire Palmer (@clairepalmster) July 29, 2020
- The third was the slowest of the three periods, bogged down by the special teams time. The biggest news is that John Carlson missed a portion of the period which is kind of terrifying.
- Vitek Vanecek entered the game and was promptly greeted with a lengthy five-on-three penalty kill. Way to let the kid get his feet wet. Methinks the Washington goalie factory has pumped out another one. I’ve seen enough.
- Stretching the ole recap and Twitter fingers for the first time in forever felt good. Let’s keep doing this thing for the rest of the summer.
WE BACK #JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsCanes pic.twitter.com/d1LSExoRsW
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) July 29, 2020
The next game actually matters and that is only somewhat terrifying. It comes against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday, August 3. Hold me.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Hurricanes
Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington
