The Washington Capitals let an inferior Detroit Red Wings team hang around way too long on Wednesday night, and it cost them.
The game began as all games should– with an Alex Ovechkin goal, a double tap from the back door on the power play. Evgeny Kuznetsov made it 2-0 early in the second period with another power play goal, but Vitek Vanecek got caught out by Adam Erne, surrendering his shutout one period earlier than scheduled.
A heavy shift by the Wings early in the third period tied the game at two. That’s how regulation ended — or as I like to put it:
Teremos OT para #Caps x Red Wings após empate em 2-2 no tempo regulamentar. #ALLCAPS #BrasilTemNHL #CapsWings
— Washington Capitals Brasil 🇧🇷 (@WCapitalsBR) October 28, 2021
Dylan Larkin won it overtime.
Caps lose.
- Alex Ovechkin now has 738 goals. Not this season. He has eight this season. That’s still really good though. It’s like historically good.
- Ovi was this close to nine goals.
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 28, 2021
- Chris on the culture beat tells us Evgeny Kuznetsov has a new goal song. Some lyrics: What you know about rollin’ down in the deep? / When your brain goes numb / you can call that mental freeze
- In the third period, a Detroit trainer tried to pass a stick to a player on the ice but instead popped Kuznetsov in the face with it. That’s wild. Really seems like it should be a bench minor. Seems like that’s what bench minors are for. Anyway, after smarting for a bit Kuznetsov was fine.
- Also, rap is about being sad now. People will argue what kind of rap is best, but the answer to me is any rap where the rap is teaching you how to do the dance that has the same name as the song. I’m old. I’m refinishing-teak-furniture old.
- After a strong first period, the Caps of the second looked strangely bad in the second period, especially among the bottom six. Related or not, Daniel Sprong had the night off as McMichael and Lapierre both got sweaters.
a regal purple for our once and future king @JoeBpXp #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/ieBk6xYzAw
— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) October 27, 2021
Kind of a low-key game tonight as the hockey world starts the process of reconciling itself against its repeated failures to protect its vulnerable people. Here’s Kyle Beach talking about how the Chicago organization, his teammates, the press, and the players’ association (Don Fehr specifically) let him down.
What Beach did today was heroic, but he was wrong on one point: he has nothing to be sorry for. None of this was his fault.
To every survivor in our audience: it’s not your fault either.
Meanwhile, we all deserve way better than the NHL, who couldn’t even muster the courage to suspend Joel Quenneville tonight. This is a garbage league staffed by goons and led by ghouls, all needing media training so that they don’t accidentally reveal their moral turpitude. Cast them into the sea and replace them with humans.
If you’re having a tough time, here are some great resources:
RAINN hotline: 1-800-656-4673
DC Rape Crisis Center hotline: 202-333-7273
Yotes in town on Friday. See you then.
Headline photo: Eddie Pasa