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Tom’s game: Caps beat Pens 5-2

By Peter Hassett

 2 Comments

February 25, 2021 9:35 pm

Against the Penguins on Thursday night, your Washington Capitals did what Washington Capitals do: obtain lead, blow lead, repeat. But this time there was a twist. I won’t spoil it for you, but it was Tom Wilson.

Offensive dynamo Nick Jensen set up white-hot Nick Backstrom for a good goal early in the game, but then the rest of the first period and all of the second passed without any more scoring. TJ Oshie scored a thrilling goal to open up the third period, but Brandon Tanev’s shorthanded goal followed close behind. Then Jake Guentzel got a greasy goal and all of a sudden the lead was fully blown.

As per the Prophecy, the game was won by Tom Wilson with a low-down tap-in on the power play. Carl Hagelin scores as only Carl Hagelin can: with an empty netter. Eller added another.

Caps win!

Not calling this a bailamos game. Two empty-netters. Feels wrong.

  • We’ll get back to Tom later.
  • With some Caps scoring conspicuously quiet these days, it’s very good to see Nicklas Backstrom producing. Gives him more opportunity to calibrate the vibe on his celebration smile, which is still a bit off, like an android that just got brained.
  • TJ Oshie‘s goal was remarkable. So let’s remark on it. Oshie has a step, but he gets spilled by Matheson. Then, while on his tummy and with one hand, he jabs the puck into the net. Amazing, and definitely a crucial goal that allowed the Caps to coast to victo–
  • Just kidding, they blew that two-goal lead in a span of 2.5 minutes. Absolutely hilarious Caps action. I hate them.
  • Vitek Vanecek keeps doing this. He faces a trillion shots and stops them all through two periods, and then any clown with a jock strap can beat him in the third. This has nothing at all to do with me taunting the jinx in the RMNB discord and everything to do with VV having some iffy reads. That Tanev one had no excuse.

Tom Wilson was everywhere. He got drew a penalty that went uncalled, he did a bad hit, he got hit bigly (but cleanly), and then he won the game by doing what he’s supposed to do: crashing the net. That plus TJ Oshie’s perfectly ugly highlight-reel goal, and this was a darn good game.

RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Penguins

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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