A team calling themselves the Washington Capitals, but who lacked most familiar Caps players and who were obviously wearing the wrong uniform, played against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
The Caps took an early lead based on — and get this — a power-play goal from John Carlson. That lead vanished four minutes later as Noah Dobson got a shot through traffic to beat Vitek Vanecek, whose name I just spelled right.
The second period went as all second periods go for Washington: poorly. Zdeno Chara fed the puck to Mat Barzal, whom you might recall is on a different team, to give the Isles the lead. Daniel Sprong scored his first goal as a Cap to knot the score 2-2 after two periods.
And then, in the final minute of regulation, Justin Schultz took a great pass from Garnet Hathaway to score the game-winning goal.
Caps win! In regulation!
- No Tom, no Ovi, no Kuzy, no Orlov, no Samsonov.
- John Carlson scored his goal from the Ovi Spot. It wasn’t really an Ovi Shot, but I’m not going to complain since the sight of a power play — let alone a PPG — is so rare these days.
- Nicklas Backstrom is gonna have a nasty bruise. He took a puck up high in the first period, returned in the second, and then left again late in the third. More to come there…
- This turnover from Zdeno Chara was absolutely brainless. I cannot wrap my head around it. The guy has a hockey brain as big as he is, but it was just shut off as he sailed the puck up the slot and to one of New York’s best players.
- New York’s Adam Pelech had an eventful game. He left the ice in the first period with an apparent lower-body injury but returned miraculously in the second just in time to get his shoulder jammed up in a big hit. Then he returned again and sold a boarding call on Carl Hagelin that eventually generated a goal for the Isles (after time expired). Bravo.
- What do we make of the “midnight navy blue” uniforms? I think they’re sharp, but my brain has a hard time recognizing the blue team as Washington.
- In the third period, Lars Eller received a boarding hit from Leo Komarov. Eller’s head bumped off the glass, and he had to be helped off the ice. Despite Barry Trotz’s impassioned pleas, the refs called it a five-minute major.
- Then again, a five-minute power play without all the fellas named in my first bullet plus Eller isn’t quite so powerful. They did nothing.
interesting collar, vertigo-inducing angle #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/dmD10ep0gS
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) January 27, 2021
Just a stunning game. This was absolutely a hellgame. This was the disaster game. The Caps had one of their four centers from opening night.
Buncha Hershey Bears just beat the New York Islanders!
RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Isles
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington
