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Caps beat Penguins 3-1, no, for real, they won this one

By Peter Hassett

 19 Comments

February 16, 2021 9:32 pm

In a stunning turn of events, the Washington Capitals played well against the Pittsburgh Penguins and actually won a game. I’d be honored to tell you about it.

There we were, early in the second period but late in capitalism, when Nick Jensen outworked the Pens in the corner to set up Conor Sheary for a laser-fast shot. Later that period, TJ Oshie sent a wizardly pass to Jakub Vrana, who roofed it to beat Tristan Jarry up high.

The Caps did not let up in the third. Early, Richard Panik found Lars Eller at the weak side to make it 3-0. The Penguins cracked the shutout late on a messy play, but the day belonged to Washington.

CAPS WIN. Losing streak over.

  • The first period was a bit sleepy, but it was also curious. Shot attempts during even strength were 50/50, but Washington controlled 84 percent of the expected goals. That’s because they kept Pittsburgh out of the crease entirely. That’s pretty unusual. I wrote about this pattern yesterday but I didn’t expect to see it demonstrated so clearly.
  • In the first period, Garnet Hathaway was the victim of an accidental grazing upon Tristan Jarry. Like Valjean before him, Hathaway served his unfair sentence with humility.
  • In the second period, known fiend Mike Matheson did a gutless and classless and vicious assault against the benign Czech goalie called Vanecek. Absolutely shameful and pathetic, typical Pittsburgh. Somberly but ineffectively, the officials gave Matheson just two paltry minutes in the penalty box. What a joke.
  • Jakub Vrana has goals in two straight, including this crackerjack set up by Oshie, but this bullet is just to celebrate another agonizing intermission interview with the kid. These are my favorite segments lately. He can’t stop emoting.

  • The Sheary-Eller-Panik was positively dominant. Eller had looked good for a few games; his goal in the third was inevitable. It was the opposite of whatever Hagelin’s next goal is.
  • I don’t care about faceoffs except when Geno uses one to trip Kuznetsov, and then Kuznetsov lays prone on the ground appealing to the refs like someone just decapitated his action figure.
  • Vitek Vanecek came darn close to recording his first NHL shutout until Justin Schultz shoved a Penguin into him right as Aston-Reese shot. Huge bummer. Schultz probably owes Vanecek an edible arrangement or something.

 

This was…

This was a damn good game.

It was well played. The Caps scored goals. They didn’t blow a big lead. They didn’t commit a billion penalties. I’m just sincerely pleased with pretty much all of that.

Now three days of rest, as if they needed that. JK they play Thursday. My bad.

RMNB Coverage of Caps at Penguins

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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