It’s been way too long — nearly a calendar year — since the Washington Capitals spent a day visiting their best buddies, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both teams are still a bit rusty, as Sunday’s matinee can attest.
The Penguins got on the scoreboard first as Evan Rodrigues deflected a screened pass from Brian Dumoulin. The Caps responded with some fourth line grease and then took the leads thanks to Alex Ovechkin’s first goal of the season.
That lead was erased in the second period when Ilya Samsonov made a bad play behind his net. That mistake was temporarily given reprieve from a clean Kuznetsov-to-Backstrom sequence on the power play, but Marcus Petterson’s goal restored the tie, making it 3-3 going into the third period.
The third gave us heartburn but no goals, so we tried and failed to decide the game in overtime. Instead, I bring you the return of shootout bullets.
- Letang did not put the biscuit in the basket.
- Oshie did not put the biscuit in the basket.
- Crosby did not put the biscuit in the basket.
- Backstrom did not put the biscuit in the basket.
- Malkin did not put the biscuit in the basket.
- Kuznetsov did not put the biscuit in the basket.
- Guentzel put the biscuit in the basket.
- Ovechkin did not put the biscuit in the basket.
Caps lose.
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1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1/30 | 2/1 | 3/3 | 3/5 | 4/8 | 4/10 | 4/18 | 4/20 |
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2/27 | 3/1 | 3/7 | 3/9 | 3/25 | 3/26 | 4/2 | 4/4 |
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2/7 | 2/9 | 3/11 | 3/13 | 4/17 | 4/27 | 5/7 | 5/8 |
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1/26 | 1/28 | 3/15 | 3/16 | 4/1 | 4/6 | 4/22 | 4/24 |
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🤷 | 1/19 | 2/14 | 2/16 | 2/23 | 2/25 | 4/29 | 5/1 |
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2/4 | 2/20 | 2/21 | 3/19 | 3/28 | 3/30 | 5/3 | 5/5 |
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🌮 | 🌮 | 1/22 | 1/24 | 2/11 | 2/13 | 4/13 | 4/15 |
- Peter Laviolette has spoken about increasing Washington’s offensive output this season. That’s not happening yet. The Caps put three (3) shots on goal in the second period; none in its final nine minutes.
- The Caps paid for that inaction. Both Chara and Dillon had significant shot blocks, the bruises from which they may be nursing for a while.
- Maybe he got bad information from his teammates, but goalie Ilya Samsonov massively misplayed the puck behind his net in the second period. Instead of chipping the puck up the ice, he allowed Coulton Sceviour a layup. (That layup required several minutes of video review, but it was a good goal.) Beyond that, I haven’t been too worried by Samsonov’s performance. He’s had trouble with screened shots and close-up deflections, but so does everyone.
- Despite the exit of head coach Todd Reirden, it seems confirmed now that the Caps are still running a slingshot pass — at least sometimes — on the power play.
- The Caps’ penalty trouble still has not ended. They took five in this outing, several in the offensive zone, most when the score was tied.
- But like I’ve said a few times, I’m not drawing any hard conclusions yet. We’ve seen just three games, two of them against the Sabres, without a preseason, without much of a training camp either. There will be experiments and evaluations and adjustments (I hope) as the season progresses.
- And in the meantime, Alex Ovechkin is finally off the schneid, recording his first goal of the season by seizing on a loose puck in the slot after some smart work by his linemates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson, both of whom had strong games. Kuznetsov’s assist on the Backstrom goal was some surgical stuff. Then again, Kuznetsov and Wilson were both perps in the Caps’ ongoing penalty problems.
- Ovi should of had two goals. Double-ping here:
pain pic.twitter.com/GP9Od7YtBn
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 17, 2021
- Daniel Sprong‘s Caps debut was underwhelming. By the third period, Laviolette had seen enough. He did not skate in the third. (I thought he did fine.)
- That was a strange three-on-three overtime. The teams seemed to be poking each other, feeling each other out, but reluctant to actually go on attack. As exhausting as previous Caps OTs have been exhilarating.
No Joe B today, so you’ll have to make do with this:
— Here's Your Replay ⬇️ (@HeresYourReplay) January 17, 2021
Not a ton to love from Washington here. After the first period, their even-strength game sorta fell apart. They committed too many penalties and generated too little offense. But their goalie made just one big mistake, and they made enough smart plays to eke out a standings point. And they were darn close to winning despite their faults.
Anyway, we’ll see a rematch on Tuesday night. See you then.
RMNB Coverage of Caps at Penguins
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports
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