Tuesday’s game between the Capitals and Penguins was the most needlessly aggravating games of hockey I’ve watched in a long time. The Caps looked great, and then they very much didn’t.

Lars Eller scored first, turning Peter Laviolette’s new lines into immediate success with a rush goal. Coulton Sceviour replied by exploiting a bad Vanacek cover. Not to fret: just six seconds later Tom Wilson took a pass from Alex Ovechkin and roofed it. And before that period was up, Wilson scored again, crashing the net following John Carlson’s pass.

The second period was weird. Jake Guentzel scored on a two-man advantage, then Evgeny Kuznetsov’s forecheck tenacity paid off with his first goal of the season. The Caps got their own five-on-three power play but gave up a humiliating shorthanded goal instead. Finally, with TJ Oshie in the penalty box with a hot-headed retaliation penalty, Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the season to tie the game 4-4 after 40 minutes.

Despite the Penguins playing with just four defenders, the Capitals could not score. Again we went to overtime.

Crosby picked up a rebound to win it.

Caps lose.

The Season

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	1/30	2/1	3/3	3/5	4/8	4/10	4/18	4/20
	2/27	3/1	3/7	3/9	3/25	3/26	4/2	4/4
	2/7	2/9	3/11	3/13	4/17	4/27	5/7	5/8
	1/26	1/28	3/15	3/16	4/1	4/6	4/22	4/24
	🤷	🤷	2/14	2/16	2/23	2/25	4/29	5/1
	2/4	2/20	2/21	3/19	3/28	3/30	5/3	5/5
	🌮	🌮	1/22	1/24	2/11	2/13	4/13	4/15

• At least the Caps have picked up at least a point in every game so far.
• Peter Laviolette shifted up his lines, and it worked (for a while). Goals came from each of the top three lines here:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Sprong
Panik – Eller – Oshie
Hagelin – Dowd – Hathaway

• And in particular from Tom Wilson, who scored two goals in the first period — both perfect finishes on attack rushes. As good as his scoring instinct is, the Caps’ eagerness to score on the rush is even more encouraging.
• The Caps still have major discipline problems. Even when they’re not getting majorly out-possessed, they get brain clouds and go to the box. They went two men down in the second period (Orlov and Eller, both for stick penalties) and gave up a goal.
• Then, when the referees do them an actual genuine solid and give the Caps their own five-on-three, the Caps plop a lazy dump into the Penguins zone, allowing a quick reversal from goalie Casey DeSmith to end up in the Caps’ net.
• And THEN — this is the THIRD penalty thing I’m cranky about — TJ Oshie put a late, high hit on Marcus Pettersson. Thank goodness Oshie missed the head, or else he’d be missing some time. That was a hotheaded retaliatory hit (Pettersson had given Oshie the business a few moments earlier) and frankly unlike Oshie. He got assessed a two-minute minor, but that was all that Geno needed to complete the blown lead. (I hope Pettersson is alright.)

The Capitals have taken their lead and turned it into pee and then peed that lead into a box fan blowing in their faces

— RMNB (@russianmachine) January 20, 2021

•  I am so mad at the Capitals. Not because they played dumb, which they did, but because I can’t believe I let them get to me so early in the season. I’m a hotheaded cranky boy right now, and that’s fine if it’s like game 62 in a regular season, but not freaking game four in The Weird Year. The esteemed Goat put it best:

In a #Caps season that I was determined to remain as emotionally even-keeled as possible, they managed to find special new ways to infuriate me just four games in.

— William Stilwell (@LoudGoat) January 20, 2021

• At least the Capitals also did pathetic things that were at least entertaining. For the second time this season, Carl Hagelin had a scoring chance that was basically a gimme, and again he duffed it.
• But still: TWO goals during two-man advantage, but one was shorthanded, and both were against the Caps. They clowned themselves.
• I feel like I’ve spent so many bullets bemoaning the second period that I have may understated that the first period was actually pretty good, with every line getting good looks. The second was self-immolation. The third was just messy, as the Penguins successfully slowed the game down given their short bench.
• Vitek Vanacek was just okay in his second appearance. That failed cover before the Sceviour goal sure did hurt in hindsight.

brown! #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/tqaDJkYs62

— Peter (good tweets only) (@peterhassett) January 20, 2021

In conclusion, I have no idea. This team is mystifying me so far. Anyone who says they know anything about this team for certain is a liar and I’d definitely fight them if there weren’t covid around.

So ends a four-game road trip to start the season. Now the Caps will return to the Green Zone to host the Sabres on Friday night. A lot I’m sure will happen between now and then. Stay safe and take care of yourselves and each other. Weird year.

RMNB Coverage of Caps at Penguins

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington