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Capitals make Rod Brind’Amour act like a child and win on the road: Capitals beat Hurricanes 4-2

The Washington Capitals took on the Carolina Hurricanes for the first time this season. Carolina is probably the best team in the league this season so this was always going to be a tough one.

Alex Ovechkin took a great feed from Dmitry Orlov to grab his 19th marker of the season and open the scoring. Aliaksei Protas followed that up with his first in the NHL only moments later.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi cut the lead in half in the third. Nino Niederreiter tied it up minutes later. Dmitry Orlov put the Caps back into the lead on a power play. John Carlson empty netter.

Capitals beat Hurricanes 4-2!

  • The Capitals struggled a bit with the Canes’ pace for about the first 15 minutes of the first period. They got it together towards the end of the period a bit but lordy does that team skate like the gosh darn wind. Aliaksei Protas probably had the two best chances for the Caps and just couldn’t bury either of them.
  • I think the Caps should try and goon it up a bit more when they play Carolina. Don’t take penalties but leave the body on dudes every single shift and try and goad them into post-whistle shenanigans. They don’t have the personnel to play that sort of game.
  • Imagine having to purposefully cheer for Tony DeAngelo. Couldn’t be us.

  • An absolutely fantastic second period. They utterly dominated a team that very, very, very rarely gets beat up like that for twenty minutes straight. Might even be the best period of the season when you consider the context. A reminder that this is still all happening without the entire second line.
  • Special shoutout to Beck Malenstyn who took two absolute bullets to the body doing his job in the defensive zone. Ouch.
  • The first line was absolutely singling the puck around on a string for large stretches of this game. When Evgeny Kuznetsov is doing his whole solo zone entry thing you know he’s feeling it.
  • Maybe if we keep talking about how Protas just cant seem to find a lucky bounce with his first NHL goal…he’ll get like three in quick succession. He had a mini-breakaway stopped by Frederik Andersen in the second. (I wrote this bullet before he scored so it worked and if I delete it that would be bad luck. You’re welcome, Aliaksei.)

  • Rod Brind’Amour not getting thrown out of this game or some sort of punishment for acting like an absolute child is a joke. You’re an adult in public, Rod.

  • The third period was a joke. The Caps did the exact opposite of what they did in the second. The Hurricanes might as well have been playing five-on-three for most of it. I hope that was more of Carolina just being good and not a conscious coaching decision to try and hide from the game and hope they just wouldn’t score. Got very lucky the Canes couldn’t stay out of the box.
  • Two turnovers led to both Hurricanes goals. Lars Eller’s to give them the tying goal was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen him make. Just absolutely brutal. Get the puck deep.

Did you want to see the Caps play the Florida Panthers again real soon? Well, your wish has come true if you answered in the affirmative to that question. The Caps play the Cats in Florida next on Tuesday.

Screenshot via NBC Sports Washington

RMNB is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHLPA, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.

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