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Sammy’s successful return: Caps beat Devils 3-2

By Chris Cerullo

 2 Comments

February 28, 2021 5:34 pm

The Washington Capitals have hit a bit of a stride in terms of good play and looked to continue down that path as they took on the New Jersey Devils for the second time in two days. Could they complete the weekend sweep?

Mikhail Maltsev opened scoring with a wrister that ramped up off Dmitry Orlov’s stick past Ilya Samsonov on the short-side. Jakub Vrana has goals in two straight after he fired home his own rebound to tie the game at one. Nicklas Backstrom looking for his 700th career assist instead found the back of the net with his own shot. Yegor Sharangovich wristed one through the body of Samsonov to tie the game once more.

Alex Ovechkin sniped one past a disbelieving MacKenzie Blackwood to restore the Caps lead and ended up the game winner.

Caps beat Devils 3-2!

  • Other than the leaky, unfortunate Devils goal I thought the Caps dominated that period and were probably unlucky not to come out of it with another three goals like they did yesterday. I was particularly impressed with the start of the Dmitry Orlov and Justin Schultz pairing as those two really push the pace offensively from the backend and seem to have found some great chemistry.
  • The birthday boy! Jakub Vrana showed Peter Laviolette that he should not be benching him by potting his second in two games to get the Caps on the board. Happy 25th to the Snek.
  • Not a ton of scoring in the first frame so I’m going to use this bullet to tell you Disney Plus subscribers out there that you need to be watching WandaVision as that show is super awesome and the season one finale is only a few days away (March 5).

  • The second was another period that I thought the Caps got the best of. Much slower pace than the first with a lot more whistles but they continued the trend of giving New Jersey absolutely nothing in terms of in close, high danger opportunities. Through 40 minutes the Devils recorded only one chance of that ilk five-on-five to the Capitals eight.
  • An Alex Ovechkin goal felt inevitable from the drop of the puck as the Great Eight definitely had his legs today and his shooting gloves on. At the end of the second, the Caps captain already had ten individual shot attempts, six shots on net, a goal (his 713th), and three individual scoring chances.
  • As President of the Nick Jensen fan club I must admit that his pairing with Zdeno Chara did not pass my eye test in this game. Chara looked slow to react on a few Devils rushes and Jensen was doing a lot of scrambling to cover for his partner. You’d think big Zee might get rested in back-to-backs but I guess not.
  • Shoutout to NBC Sports Washington for the pregame stuff they’re doing this season by bringing in Bruce Boudreau and former Caps to talk puck before each game. That programming has been a ton of fun to watch and as someone who hasn’t watched pregame coverage in probably over five years, it has made me tune in. Alan May stirring the pot and constantly flaming Ian is also always a treat.

  • The Caps went full turtle again in the third and I really wish they would stop that trend. They had a single, five-on-five shot attempt through about 12 minutes of the third.
  • Ilya Samsonov‘s return to the Washington cage was a rocky one. The first goal against was a tough change of pace but you still don’t want to see him beat short-side like that. The second goal against just can’t happen. He seemed to settle down and had a great third period though on the way to a win.
  • That penalty call on Tom Wilson in the third was a complete joke. “Slashing”, by the way. The ref called it like he had just discovered life on Jupiter too.

The Caps have a couple of days off before two in a row against the Boston Bruins as both teams battle atop the NHL’s East Division. Two big games.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Devils

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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