Home / Game Recap / Ex-Pens axe Pens: Caps beat Penguins 6-1

Ex-Pens axe Pens: Caps beat Penguins 6-1

By Peter Hassett

 5 Comments

November 14, 2021 9:30 pm

The Washington Capitals just ultra-thrashed the Pittsburgh Penguins at home on Sunday night. Boy howdy was this a beatdown.

Martin Fehervary kicked us off with a shorthanded goal set up by Wilson and Hathaway. Alex Ovechkin was the consummate playmaker for Hathaway, who scored made it 2-0, only to have the Penguins get on the board with a close-up goal from Guentzel before the first intermission.

The Capitals played a strong second period and got rewarded with two late goals from Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong. Evgeny Kuznetsov made it a full-fledged blowout in the third, and Tom Wilson made it 6-1.

Caps win!

Bailamos.

(I know I need an extended version. It’ll come.)

  • Those two goals in the second period came from Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong — both former Penguins. Lars Eller’s patience to set up Sprong was extra impressive from a guy struggling to produce lately. A gorgeous assist but still second to…
  • …Alex Ovechkin‘s fake-shot-then-slap-pass to Garnet Hathaway. First of all, how are those two fellas sharing so much ice time together? What a weird year. Second, I suppose with Backstrom out long-term, Ovechkin felt empowered to set up some more of his teammates.
  • I mean, Ovechkin almost got another ex-Penguin, Carl Hagelin, to score. And that’s Carl Hagelin! He never scores. He’s a $2.75 million forward who kills penalties except when he increasingly commits them and drives play in a ton of bottom-six minutes without scoring. I don’t know what point I’m making here.

  • Garnet Hathaway had another multi-point game, and earlier today his work-spouse got a contract extension. I’m loving this player more every game.
  • Sunday was Sidney Crosby‘s second game of the season after a wrist injury and COVID. He was not good, and he had a bad time. He was acting out a bit. I’ll decline to say more for now. I’m trying to be nice.
  • But still I wanna know when the models will start to favor the Caps over the Penguins. Based on this game, it should be soon. The Pens were terrible tonight.

  • Nick Jensen blocked a brutal shot from Kris Letang and missed a few shifts, but he returned and seemed okay. Daniel Sprong absorbed a puck with his mouthular region, so bailed on the game a minute or two early.
  • The power play is still highly problematic. Either they’re trying something new and it’s not quite working yet, or it’s getting worse.

Tonight was the Hockey Fights Cancer game in DC. Cancer is expected to kill more than 600,000 thousand people in America this year, but so many cancers are treatable and manageable when detected early. Many even trash-tier insurance plans will cover well visits and basic screening, so get to the doctor if you can. Maybe agitate politically for the people who can’t.

Somewhere around 25 to 30 percent of cancers are sex-linked (e.g. prostate, breast), and experts recommend routine testing for them based on your risk.

Take care of yourselves, and be there for your people who are going through it. Make them soup. That literally always helps. I could go for a hot bowl right now. I don’t know how to send my soup through the mail to my people, but I’ll find a way. Love you all.

Now’s time for the Caps to do their big trip through California, now with Seattle added. That’s gonna be a blast. Let’s get weird with the late night.