The Washington Capitals were due for a weird game, and that’s precisely what Thursday’s roadie with the Florida Panthers delivered.
Let’s put the goalie stuff aside for a moment. Alex Barkov converted a rebound and survived a goalie-interference challenge to put the Cats up. A bomb from the blue line via Aaron Ekblad put the Caps down bad. But Daniel Sprong scored on a breakaway to start the second, giving Washington life or at least a state of undeath that provides prolonged suffering and no succor. Brandon Montour got a good screen to restore Florida’s two-goal lead, which Barkov extended by crashing the net. But then Ovechkin scored on a rush attack, followed by Tom Wilson tapping in his first of the season from the paint.
Connor McMichael tied the game with his first ever NHL goal, taking us to overtime, but the Cats owned overtime, winning it easily.
Caps lose.
- The starting goalies were Sergei Bobrovsky and Ilya Samsonov. Except Samsonov missed the start of the game due to undisclosed reasons, so Vanecek played the first two minutes. That’s weird. And then Bobrovsky, who was superb in the first period, left mysteriously before the second period, citing an upper-body injury. Then Samsonov appeared to take himself out of the game after the Montour goal.
“Hey, I had to leave the game early. How’s my replacement doing?” pic.twitter.com/2ah9Dymgin
— Japers’ Rink (@JapersRink) November 5, 2021
- Resetting for a moment, the Florida Panthers are a very good team. This game was supposed to be a test of Washington’s systems play. It honestly became more of a stress test on goalie redundancy, but if we look at it as a systems-play benchmark, it was great! It’s just that Washington’s goalie(s) had a rough outing, and Florida’s goalie — the first one — was lights out.
- John Carlson had an abysmal first period, on ice and somewhat responsible for both Panthers goals and hardly getting a peep at the offensive zone.
- Alex Ovechkin has ten goals in ten games, tying his hottest season starts ever. Spencer Knight becomes the 150th goalie to add a notch to Ovechkin’s belt.
- But more importantly, Ovechkin assisted Connor McMichael on first NHL goal, a big one to tie the game in the third.
- Forward Anthony Mantha disappeared after the second period due to an unspecified injury. That gave Washington a shortened bench for that manic third period.
- Lower in the lineup, Daniel Sprong had a goal and bonus looks that make a good case not to scratch him again. I think Sprong and Sheary have a huge opportunity to step up with TJ Oshie is out.
- Speaking of missing forwards, Washington really misses Nicky Backstrom‘s half-circle presence on the power play.
- Thursday was the Caps’ first game with more than 40 shots. (They had exactly 40 against the Avs last month.)
here’s @JoeBpXp mixing and matching patterns like an absolute pro #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/cx8YcZc1g8
— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) November 4, 2021
Now that was a weird one. A weird, good one. I think Washington was the better team between the nets; they positively blew the doors off the barn in the second period. It’s just that goalies were invented by non-MCU Loki to make hockey even weirder than it had any business being. Nothing you can do about goalies on a game-by-game basis. Are you worried about Samsonov?
Self-promotion time: I made a new album! It’s called Year of Miracles, and it’s an approachable rock record with lots of choruses and zero critiques of late capitalism. It’s streaming everywhere. Here’s a tune called “Virginity”.
That’s all. See you Saturday for a home game against Philly!
